WazirX Creditors Approve Restructuring Plan, 93.1% Vote in Favor

More than 90% of the voting creditors of the Indian crypto exchange WazirX have endorsed the platform’s post-hack restructuring plan. According to an April 7 announcement, 93.1% of voting creditors, who hold 94.6% of the value, voted in favor of the plan. All creditors who held crypto balances on the platform were eligible to vote on the Kroll Issuer Services platform from March 19 until March 28.

WazirX co-founder and CEO Nischal Shetty emphasized that with the plan approved, the recovery of stolen assets is now a primary focus. He also highlighted profit sharing as an additional measure the firm hopes to use to compensate its users. This development follows early February reports that WazirX had warned that repayments from the $235 million hack against it could be delayed until 2030 if creditors didn’t approve its proposed restructuring plan. At the time, the platform indicated that creditors might face “unclear and potentially extended timelines” if the plan wasn’t approved.

Shetty celebrated the vote results in a subsequent post, stating, “The people have spoken. We will work hard on rebuilding and creating value for everyone.” The plan for repaying creditors involves WazirX holding liquid assets amounting to $566.4 million USDt, while the claims amount to $546.5 million USDT. The exchange also released recovery tokens to settle outstanding claims, allowing creditors to benefit from future platform operations and asset recovery. WazirX promised to return funds through token distributions that could yield 75% to 80% of the value of users’ account balances at the time of the cyberattack. The rest would be represented by recovery tokens, which will be periodically repurchased using profits generated from platform operations and a proposed decentralized exchange (DEX).

Plans to launch the dex were unveiled in November 2024, with Shetty stating that it will help prevent hack losses from happening again. He said, “The best thing is that you'll be able to self-custody your assets here — your assets will be completely under your control — and you can freely trade or do what you want with your assets.” Shetty also mentioned that the DEX will aim to be much simpler to interact with than the usual experience of decentralized trading platforms, stating, “Our goal is to make it on par with our CEX in terms of ease of operating.”

WazirX lost $234.9 million of digital assets in a Safe Multisig wallet in mid-July 2024. The attack was attributed to North Korean state actors and unfolded with alarming speed and precision, with many speculating on its impact on the broader crypto industry. To prevent future hacks, WazirX has moved to BitGo and Zodia for crypto custody, promising “enhanced protection of funds.” The partnerships also reportedly include insurance.

Hacks continue to be a significant issue for the cryptocurrency industry. Securing digital assets requires more than just secure on-chain code — the entire infrastructure, from front-end interfaces to internal processes, must be equally hardened, as all it takes is a single weak spot to wreck the entire system. This is also the third quarter in a row that the top exploit was a multisignature-related event.