Ashish Singhal, CEO of Indian exchange Coinswitch announced a recovery program for victims of the $230 million WazirX hack that occurred in July 2024.
The recovery program however drew backlash from members of the Wazir X community as it is perceived as a marketing strategy rather than a genuine effort to help.
Singhal announced this new recovery program on X explaining that the program’s objective is not only to assist users in recovering losses but also to promote the growth of India’s crypto ecosystem.
“ Today, we’re launching ‘CoinSwitch Cares,’ a Rs 600 crore recovery program to help WazirX users who lost money due to the alleged cyberattack of July 2024.
The program aims not only to allow users to recoup losses but also to ensure the growth of the Indian crypto community. Starting today, affected users can recover losses, earn rewards, and re-enter the market with confidence through this community-focused initiative.” Singhal stated.
The tweet further outlined steps to join the program for interested WazirX victims looking to come on board. It includes sign-up details and potential rewards available in the recovery program.
How CoinSwitch Cares Works
The recovery program, branded as “CoinSwitch Cares,” encourages WazirX users to estimate their losses, create a CoinSwitch account, and transfer their funds once withdrawals are available. New users are liable to various Rewards like Signup rewards, Revenue redistribution, and referral rewards designed to incentivize them.
CoinSwitch hopes to elevate the Indian Crypto community and repair the reputational damage done to the community by the $230 million Wazir X hack.
Backlash
The Initiative by Coinswitch CEO was met with stiff backlash on X from the Indian crypto community who accused the CEO of trying to exploit a tragedy for marketing gimmicks.
The Critics believe that the timing of the program makes it suspicious and clouds the supposed good gesture of the entire program.
In addition to the critics, the Critics also believe that users who lost huge funds to the WazirX hack will not be looking to transfer their funds to another centralized exchange.
A WazirX user and supposed victim raised concerns about the initiative’s long-term effectiveness stating that the entire program looks like a marketing Stunt for CoinSwitch.
Backstory
In July 2024, Web 3 security experts Cyvers alerted the crypto community to a whopping $230 million loss on India’s biggest exchange.
The Wazir X hack remains the biggest hack of 2024 and drew outrage amid the crypto community. The hackers compromised the platform’s multi-signature wallet and made away with over $230 million worth of crypto assets belonging to Wazir X users.
Wazir X has unsuccessfully tried various recovery methods including promising white hat hackers 10% of recovered loot and trying a social loss-sharing method that sought to share losses amongst all members of the platform.