WazirX Inches Toward a Comeback—But the Court Holds the Key

The aftermath of the WazirX hack may soon see resolution. The exchange has laid out a detailed recovery plan, and May could mark its return—provided the legal system endorses its restructuring proposal.

The High Court of Singapore will hold the restructuring hearing on May 13. Zettai PTE, the exchange’s parent company, has confirmed that all pre-launch formalities are finalized. Subject to a favorable ruling, the platform will resume operations and initiate the first round of user reimbursements—issuing recovery tokens within ten business days.

WazirX officials were quick to note that the case is proceeding under the oversight of an independent judiciary, and as such, timelines are provisional—subject to court schedules and procedural delays. Yet anxiety is brewing online: some users fear that if the proposal doesn’t clear judicial approval, compensation could be pushed into 2030, snagged by legal inertia and back-end bottlenecks.

Despite the uncertainty, April brought a wave of consensus—93% of creditors voted in favor of a bold recovery scheme. Designed to reimburse up to 80% of approved claims, the plan relies on issuing Recovery Tokens to 141,476 creditors who are owed nearly $196 million in total. The tokens will be repurchased using future profits, anchoring the platform’s long-term bet on self-restoration.

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The breach of the Safe Multisig wallet in July 2024 sent shockwaves through the crypto world. Hackers made off with approximately $235 million—nearly 45% of the platform’s reserves—marking one of the most significant thefts in recent memory. Chainalysis data reveals the broader trend: more than $2.2 billion in crypto was stolen last year, with state-sponsored groups from North Korea linked to 61% of those attacks.

Back in India, the courts offered little comfort. On April 16, the Supreme Court threw out a petition from 54 defrauded WazirX users demanding a forensic audit and accountability from the exchange’s leaders and its affiliates, including Binance and Liminal. The ruling? Crypto regulation, the court said, belongs not to judges—but to regulators.

Read on: Cryptocurrency Regulations in India: Key Features

A smooth execution of WazirX’s restructuring could provide a playbook for other damaged exchanges in the region. Analysts highlight the hybrid token model—with future revenue earmarked for buybacks—as an emerging best practice for crisis response within the broader crypto economy.