Major Indian cryptocurrency exchange WazirX experienced a wallet exploit resulting in the theft of over $230 million in crypto assets. The attack targeted the exchange's multi-sig wallet on the Ethereum network, causing significant market volatility for affected tokens.

Leading cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has announced the expansion of its Kraken Custody services to institutional clients in the United Kingdom and Australia, marking Kraken Custody's first international rollout following its successful launch in the United States earlier this year.

Defunct crypto lender BlockFi has confirmed the commencement of initial cryptocurrency distributions to eligible clients via Coinbase, in a process that starts this month and will be conducted in batches over several months, with clients receiving notifications via their registered email addresses.

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• India’s WazirX Exchange Hit by Major Security Breach: Over $230 Million in Crypto Stolen
• Kraken Expands Crypto Custody Services to Institutional Clients in the UK and Australia
• BlockFi to Begin Processing Crypto Distributions via Coinbase
• CME Institutional Volumes Decline After Strong Performance in May

India’s WazirX Exchange Hit by Major Security Breach: Over $230 Million in Crypto Stolen

Major Indian cryptocurrency exchange WazirX experienced a wallet exploit resulting in the theft of over $230 million in crypto assets. The attack targeted the exchange's multi-sig wallet on the Ethereum network, causing significant market volatility for affected tokens.

Security firm Blocksec reported that the exploit likely occurred due to a private key compromise as the attacker upgraded the Safe Wallet implementation to a malicious contract, allowing them to drain the funds.

Yajin Zhou, co-founder of Blocksec, explained that the leaked private keys were used to upgrade a safe multi-sig wallet holding a large number of assets to a malicious contract, which was then used to drain most of the assets in the Safe Wallet. WazirX has acknowledged the breach and temporarily paused all withdrawals, including both cryptocurrency and Indian Rupee (INR) while investigating the incident.

The stolen funds include over $100 million in Shiba Inu (SHIB), 15,290 ETH (about $52 million), 20 million MATIC tokens (about $11 million), 640 billion PEPE tokens ($7.5 million), 5.7 million USDT, and 135 million GALA ($3.5 million). WazirX's native token, WRX, has dropped 15% to around 14 cents, and 25% against the rupee. SHIB has lost over 6% against the USD and 16% against the rupee, with blockchain data indicating the attacker is liquidating stolen coins.

While some tokens remain stable against the dollar, they've seen significant losses in WazirX's INR trading pairs. The bitcoin-rupee (BTC/INR) pair has declined 11% to 5.1 million rupees ($60,945) on WazirX, trading at a discount when compared to rival exchanges, while the USDT-INR pair on WazirX dropped by 8%.

Kraken Expands Crypto Custody Services to Institutional Clients in the UK and Australia

Leading cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has announced the expansion of its Kraken Custody services to institutional clients in the United Kingdom and Australia, marking Kraken Custody's first international rollout following its successful launch in the United States earlier this year.

The expansion aims to provide new and existing institutional clients outside the US with a secure digital asset custody solution. Tim Ogilvie, Kraken’s global head of institutional, described the UK and Australia as natural choices for this expansion and hinted at future expansions into the European Union, Switzerland, Cayman Islands, and British Virgin Islands.

Kraken Custody facilitates institutional storage and access to digital assets, allowing investors to adhere to regulations when entering the market. It uses advanced security protocols developed by Kraken’s in-house cybersecurity team.

BlockFi to Begin Processing Crypto Distributions via Coinbase

Defunct crypto lender BlockFi has confirmed the commencement of initial cryptocurrency distributions to eligible clients via Coinbase, in a process that starts this month and will be conducted in batches over several months, with clients receiving notifications via their registered email addresses.

However, non-U.S. clients are currently unable to receive funds due to regulatory requirements. BlockFi's Plan Administrator is working with Joint Liquidators of BlockFi International to implement a distribution process for non-U.S. clients that complies with Bermuda regulations.

Coinbase states on its website that no further funds are approved for distribution to non-U.S. clients until all relevant stakeholders confirm that these requirements have been met.

BlockFi and Coinbase have agreed to a one-year distribution window, beginning after the first asset distribution to creditors. This follows a May announcement that eligible BlockFi clients could still access crypto withdrawals via Coinbase after BlockFi's web platform shutdown, allowing them to avoid immediate conversion of their assets to cash.

Fiat claims are not being processed by Coinbase but are instead handled by Kroll and its payment processing partner, Digital Disbursements. The plan administrator will continue using Coinbase for future distributions, including potential recoveries from the FTX and Alameda Research estates, with which BlockFi reached an $875 million in-principle settlement.

BlockFi paused customer withdrawals in November 2022 and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy shortly after. In September 2023, the bankruptcy court approved BlockFi's plan to repay its 10,000 creditors. As a centralized lender, BlockFi provided interest-yielding deposit accounts and functioned similarly to a bank by loaning out user deposits to crypto industry clients.

The company's downfall was part of a larger crisis in the centralized crypto lending sector in 2022, which saw the bankruptcy of several firms, including Celsius, Voyager Digital, and Genesis.

CME Institutional Volumes Decline After Strong Performance in May

Last month the total futures trading volume on the CME dropped by 11.5% to $103 billion, with BTC futures volumes dropping 11.5% to $85.2 billion, and ETH futures volumes declining 15.8% to $18.2 billion.

Bitcoin options volume on the exchange went down 28.2% to $1.5 billion on the exchange, while ETH options saw a 58% decline to $408 million.

Dig deeper into the world of cryptocurrency trading with CCData’s latest Exchange Review report.

State of the Crypto by Top Tier Exchange Volume

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