Indian crypto exchange CoinDCX was hacked on Friday, and around $44.2 million was stolen from one of its internal accounts.
The breach went unnoticed by the public until blockchain investigator ZachXBT flagged it nearly 17 hours later. The attacker reportedly used Tornado Cash to fund their wallet with 1 ETH and moved part of the stolen funds from the Solana blockchain to Ethereum.
CoinDCX later confirmed that the compromised wallet was an internal operational account used for liquidity on a partner exchange.
According to CEO Sumit Gupta, “The incident was quickly contained by isolating the affected operational account.” He assured that no user funds were affected, as customer wallets are stored separately in secure cold wallets. Gupta added, “The exposure is only limited to this specific account and is being fully absorbed by us, from our own treasury reserves.”
The suspicious activity was first detected by blockchain security firm Cyvers, which then alerted ZachXBT. He shared the details on Telegram, stating, “Looks like the India centralized exchange ‘CoinDCX’ was likely drained for ~$44.2M almost 17 hours ago and has yet to disclose the incident to the community.” The attacker’s wallet on Solana and Ethereum was shared publicly, and none of the stolen funds appeared in CoinDCX’s proof-of-reserves documents.
CoinDCX’s Web3 wallet was taken offline as a precaution, and several trading pairs and spot orders were reportedly disabled. Despite the hack, the exchange said that INR withdrawals and general trading remain fully operational.
Gupta noted that the attack was the result of a “sophisticated server attack” and that they are working with cybersecurity experts to investigate the incident and recover funds. He also announced plans for a bug bounty program to prevent future issues.
The community has responded with mixed feelings. Some users appreciated the CEO’s transparent post on X, while others pointed out that the company only acknowledged the hack after ZachXBT’s post went viral. Cointelegraph reached out to CoinDCX for comment but did not receive a response by publication.
This is not the first time a major Indian exchange has been targeted. Exactly one year ago, WazirX was hacked for $235 million. In recent weeks, other platforms like Nobitex in Iran and GMX Protocol on Arbitrum have also been hit by attackers.
Also Read: One Year Since WazirX’s ₹2,000 Crore Hack: The Wait, The Questions, & the Uneasy Silence
