Indian court bars WazirX from using customer XRP to offset hack losses
An Indian court has sided with an XRP holder against WazirX and granted the user "interim protection" by preventing the crypto exchange from reallocating the user's XRP assets.
In an order delivered Saturday by the Madras High Court, Justice N. Anand Venkatesh barred WazirX from redistributing a customer's 3,532 XRP holdings ($9,400) to absorb platform losses following a $230 million exploit in July 2024.
As part of its restructuring plan, WazirX said it intends to implement a "socialization of losses" approach, requiring all users — even those who do not hold ERC-20 tokens — to absorb a portion of losses in their holdings.
The judge noted that the plan should not apply to the user holding XRP, as the stolen crypto were ERC-20 tokens that are "completely different cryptocurrencies."
Crypto is property
The court's ruling centered on fundamental property rights, determining that the user's XRP assets — purchased months before the hack — remain theirs and should not be diluted to compensate for the platform's operational failures. The court held that cryptocurrency qualifies as property, specifically noting that it is "capable of being possessed."
The filing concluded that the user is "entitled to an interim protection" under the country's Arbitration and Conciliation Act. The judge further directed WazirX to furnish a bank guarantee of 956,000 rupees (about $11,500) or deposit the same amount into an escrow account as interim protection for the user, pending arbitration proceedings.
The Block has reached out to WazirX for comment on the ruling.
Last week, WazirX restarted its operations after Singapore's High Court approved a restructuring plan backed by nearly 96% of participating creditors. The hack that led to a 16-month platform suspension was caused by North Korea's Lazarus Group, which had exploited a flaw in its multi-signature wallet system, WazirX previously said.
Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet that delivers news, research, and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a majority investor of The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other companies in the crypto space. Crypto exchange Bitget is an anchor LP for Foresight Ventures. The Block continues to operate independently to deliver objective, impactful, and timely information about the crypto industry. Here are our current financial disclosures.
© 2025 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.