Mumbai, India-based crypto exchange WazirX relayed today that it suffered a security breach early this morning that led to about $235 million in cryptocurrency being stolen after one of its Ethereum wallets was compromised.

The news surfaced after Web3 security firm Cyvers noted suspicious transactions had moved $234.9 million in funds from the exchange’s wallet to a new address.

🚨ALERT🚨Hey @WazirXIndia, Our system has detected multiple suspicious transactions involving your Safe Multisig wallet on the #ETH network.

A total of $234.9M of your funds have been moved to a new address. Each transaction's caller is funded by @TornadoCash.

The suspicious… pic.twitter.com/4sajAwd4Hb

— 🚨 Cyvers Alerts 🚨 (@CyversAlerts) July 18, 2024

In response to the incident, WazirX said it quickly clamped down on its assets and wallets to keep them safe by locking them down and prevent them from moving.

“We’re aware that one of our multisig wallets has experienced a security breach. Our team is actively investigating the incident,” the company said in an early morning update on X. “To ensure the safety of your assets, INR and crypto withdrawals will be temporarily paused. Thank you for your patience and understanding.”

A multisig wallet is a type of cryptocurrency wallet that requires two or more signatures to confirm and send a transaction. It is similar to a bank’s safe deposit box that requires multiple keys to open and is considered a safe option for storing crypto assets with extra layers of security. It’s unknown at this time what failed and made the WazirX wallet vulnerable to a security breach.

Blockchain investigative and security analytics firm Elliptic reported the attack is tied to a North Korean hacking group.

There were more than 200 different assets stolen, including $96.7 million of Shiba Inu, a so-called “meme coin” based on a dog, $52.6 million in Ethereum; $11 million of Matic, and $7.6 million of Pepe, another meme coin based on a frog. The stolen funds account for just under half of the company’s $500 million in reserve holdings, according to the exchange’s June 2024 Proof of Reserves Report. The real-time version of the report is also currently offline at the time of writing.

Blockchain data collected by Etherscan shows that the hackers have begun to offload assets through the decentralized exchange Uniswap.

With more than 16 million users, WazirX is one of the most prominent crypto exchanges in India and operates primarily in that market. It’s one of the few exchanges that can operate in India, with a license from regulators in the country. According to Coinranking.com, it traded $5.29 million in the last 24 hours and lists 256 coins.

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