A look at the $44 million breach

India’s largest crypto exchange is back online after a $44 million breach exposed a blind spot in its operational infrastructure.

While no customer funds were touched, the CoinDCX hack—traced to a Tornado Cash-funded wallet—raises fresh questions about transparency and wallet hygiene in a market still building user trust. Now fully operational, CoinDCX is vowing stronger safeguards and a bug bounty program to stay ahead of the next exploit.

ZachXBT IDs attack

On-chain investigator ZachXBT first identified the attack approximately 17 hours prior to the exchange publicly disclosing the incident.

ZachXBT traced the attack to an address funded with 1 ETH from Tornado Cash, with the attacker later bridging stolen funds from Solana (SOL) to Ethereum (ETH).

Tel Aviv-based security firm Cyvers flagged the suspicious withdrawals, prompting manual attribution, as the affected CoinDCX hot wallet lacked public tags and proof-of-reserves documentation.

Customer funds remain secure

CoinDCX CEO Sumit Gupta addressed the community directly and mentioned that the breach did not impact customer assets.

“No customer funds have been impacted. Your assets remain completely safe and protected in our secure cold wallet infrastructure,” Gupta stated in his initial disclosure.

The hack affected an internal operational account used solely to provision liquidity on a partner exchange, not consumer deposit wallets.

“The incident was quickly contained by isolating the affected operational account. Since our operational accounts are segregated from customer wallets, the exposure is only limited to this specific account,” Gupta explained.

CoinDCX exchange restores full functionality

Following the security incident, CoinDCX temporarily suspended certain operations while investigating the breach. The exchange has since restored all trading activities and INR withdrawal capabilities without restrictions.

“Trading and INR withdrawals on CoinDCX are fully operational and running smoothly. You can withdraw your INR anytime — without restrictions,” Gupta announced. He urged users against panic selling, warning that hasty decisions “often leads to poor prices and unnecessary losses.”

What’s next

The exchange is collaborating with its partner platform to block and recover stolen assets while implementing additional security measures.

CoinDCX plans to launch a bug bounty program to incentivize security researchers to identify potential vulnerabilities.

“Every security incident is a learning and we will learn from this and further strengthen our platform,” Gupta stated.