CoinSwitch Tries To Woo WazirX Users with Rs 600 crore Plan

In a massive poaching move, CoinSwitch announced a Rs 600 crore ($75 Million) plan to woo WazirX users who have been affected by the 2024 crypto hack, by offering them lucrative sign-up rewards and higher returns.

CoinSwitch CEO Ashish Singhal rolled out the “CoinSwitch Cares,” scheme on Tuesday morning, offering a Rs 600 crore recovery program for WazirX users who were hit hard by the July 2024 cyberattack. Over 4.4 million users of WazirX platform were hit with a collective loss of Rs 2000 crore ($234.9 Million) worth of crypto funds. 

Singhal explained in his X post that starting now, affected WazirX users can calculate their potential recovery, make deposits, and claim rewards through a newly launched portal ‘ coinswitch cares ’, dedicated solely to WazirX users. Any WazirX user, affected by the hack, wishes to switch to CoinSwitch, will be offered lucrative sign-up and referral rewards along with higher returns if they deposit their compensation funds that they will receive from WazirX.

According to CoinSwitch, most users can expect to recover 100% of their losses within eight months of WazirX releasing funds. Through their ‘CoinSwitch Cares’ plan, the exchange is planning to poach as many WazirX users as they can, before the latter starts releasing the remaining users funds.

This initiative comes at a time when WazirX is grappling with significant challenges. The platform, still recovering from the cyberattack and delays in withdrawals, plans to restart withdrawals by mid-April 2025. There’s also buzz about WazirX launching a decentralized exchange (DEX) for Indian users registered abroad.

Adding another twist, rival platform CoinDCX has expressed interest in acquiring WazirX platform and all its users. CEO Neeraj Khandelwal said, “ We want to help WazirX users . But it’s also dependent on WazirX. If they want to.” This could open doors to a stable recovery path for WazirX’s user base, though the ball remains in WazirX’s court.