Indian cryptocurrency exchange CoinDCX has launched a recovery initiative after a $44 million security breach on Friday. The hack compromised internal accounts used for liquidity management, but the company confirmed that no customer funds were affected.
CoinDCX co-founder and CEO Sumit Gupta announced the recovery effort on X, introducing a bounty program aimed at white hat hackers. The initiative promises up to 25% of any funds recovered to ethical hackers who assist in tracing and retrieving the stolen assets.
“The breach impacted our corporate reserves only, which have already been covered through our treasury,” Gupta stated. “More than just recovering the funds, it’s critical we identify and catch those behind this — to protect not just ourselves, but the broader crypto industry.”
Despite the breach, the CoinDCX platform continues to function normally, with all user operations and balances intact.
The incident adds to a growing trend of attacks on centralized exchanges. Just last year, WazirX, another Indian crypto exchange, was hit by a $230 million hack. Earlier this year, Bybit suffered the largest crypto theft to date — a staggering $1.4 billion exploit.
Michael Pearl, Vice President of GTM strategy at blockchain security firm Cyvers, says these incidents highlight the urgent need for better protections across the sector. “In Q2 2024 alone, centralized exchanges accounted for over 65% of Web3 losses — nearly $500 million due to wallet access breaches,” Pearl told Cointelegraph.
“These are systemic flaws, not isolated events,” he added, urging exchanges to implement real-time monitoring and offchain transaction validation, which could prevent the vast majority of crypto-related hacks and scams.
CoinDCX’s bounty program marks a proactive shift in the industry’s response to such attacks, with the company aiming not only to recover its lost funds but also to strengthen collective defense against future breaches.
