CoinDCX CEO Vows a “Stronger” Comeback and Launches a 25% Bounty

India’s leading cryptocurrency exchange, CoinDCX, is pushing forward with renewed focus and resolve after suffering a $44 million exploit last week.

CoinDCX to Come Back Stronger

In a public comment since the breach, CEO Sumit Gupta took to social media on July 23 to reflect on the crisis and express confidence in the company’s recovery.

“Finally got some time to sleep. Took a moment to digest everything that’s happened over the last few days,” Gupta wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

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Gupta called the hack “a challenging situation” to deal with, adding that CoinDCX will emerge “stronger, sharper, and more resilient.” The crypto exchange will continue focusing on building a stronger base for Web3 adoption in India.

Recap of the July 19 CoinDCX Hack

The attack, which took place on July 19, compromised an internal CoinDCX account used for liquidity provisioning with another exchange. According to the company, the breach occurred through a server vulnerability, allowing attackers to siphon off $44 million worth of crypto assets.

Gupta revealed that no user funds were affected, as the operational account that was exploited was fully segregated from customer wallets.

“The incident was quickly contained by isolating the affected operational account,” Gupta noted in an X post.

Related: CoinDCX CEO Counters $44.2M Hack Fears Revealing $136 Million in Annual Revenue

Blockchain investigator ZachXBT added further technical detail, noting that the hacker’s address was initially funded with 1 Ether from Tornado Cash, a crypto mixer often used to hide transaction origins.

Some of the stolen funds were later bridged from Solana to Ethereum, suggesting a coordinated and sophisticated operation.

White Hat Recovery Initiative

As part of its response, CoinDCX has launched a white hat recovery initiative to trace and retrieve the stolen funds. The company has pledged a bounty of up to 25% for ethical hackers who can successfully assist in the recovery effort.

The CoinDCX breach follows a string of major exploits in 2024, including a $235 million hack at WazirX, another Indian exchange, on the exact same date last year, and a $1.4 billion theft from Bybit earlier this year, the largest in crypto history.