CoinSwitch has announced a $70 million recovery program, “CoinSwitch Cares,” aimed at helping WazirX users recover losses from a July 2024 cyberattack.

The two-year initiative, seeks to restore confidence in India’s crypto ecosystem by providing financial relief to affected individuals.

The program offers WazirX users a chance to estimate their losses, recover a portion of their funds, and earn additional rewards.

To participate, users must complete four steps: calculate their losses using CoinSwitch’s provided tool, register on the platform and complete the Know Your Customer process, deposit funds from any source, and transfer recovered funds from WazirX to maximize benefits.

Participants can earn up to 10% of the funds they deposit through the program over two years. Additionally, CoinSwitch will redistribute trading revenue from the initiative based on victims’ proportionate losses.

Additionally, users can refer other affected WazirX customers and earn up to 5% of deposited funds as a referral reward.

WazirX hack in 2024

For context, cryptocurrency exchanges like WazirX allow users to trade digital assets such as Bitcoin (BTC) or Ethereum (ETH). However, they can also be targets for cyberattacks, which can lead to significant financial losses. 

The WazirX cryptocurrency exchange was hacked in July 2024, leading to the theft of over $2 million in user funds. The attackers exploited a vulnerability in the platform’s smart contract system to siphon assets. WazirX temporarily halted operations and assured users that an investigation was underway to recover the stolen funds.

CoinSwitch, another crypto platform, is stepping in to provide financial relief and rebuild trust within the community.

Real Vision’s chief digital assets analyst Jamie Coutts says that a nascent but soaring crypto sector could continue its upward trend for a few more months.

Coutts tells his 32,100 followers on the social media platform X that he thinks crypto artificial intelligence (AI) agents will continue to perform well in the coming months.

Crypto AI agents are protocols built to autonomously perform tasks on behalf of users such as interacting with blockchains and decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms, trading and managing portfolios.

Says Coutts,

“The last big crypto hype cycle was from November 2020 to May 2021, around six months. Subsectors like DeFi, NFTs (non-fungible tokens) around six-12 months.

Interest in AI agents in crypto took off in November 2024. Based on history, this trend is expected to last at least another four months, but probably longer.

AI agents are not like the others – they unlock potential for every established and new use case.”

The Real Vision analyst, however, says that crypto AI agents could face a severe correction after reaching the cycle top.

“There will be many scams (tread carefully/position size), and as with every hype cycle, the dump will be massive, but I suspect this move still has a way to go.”

According to the cryptocurrency data aggregator CoinGecko, some of the AI-focused crypto projects that rank among the top 100 digital assets by market cap include Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (FET), Virtuals Protocol (VIRTUAL) and ai16z (AI16Z).

Artificial Superintelligence Alliance is a me ging of various decentralized AI platforms whose goal is to speed up the advancement of decentralized Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and Artificial Superintelligence (ASI).

Virtuals Protocol is a platform that aims to enable the co-ownership of AI agents.

Meanwhile, the ai16z crypto project is designed to leverage AI-driven insights to direct investments in blockchain projects.

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Disclaimer: Opinions expressed at The Daily Hodl are not investment advice. Investors should do their due diligence before making any high-risk investments in Bitcoin, cryptocurrency or digital assets. Please be advised that your transfers and trades are at your own risk, and any losses you may incur are your responsibility. The Daily Hodl does not recommend the buying or selling of any cryptocurrencies or digital assets, nor is The Daily Hodl an investment advisor. Please note that The Daily Hodl participates in affiliate marketing.

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FTX alumni’s Backpack Exchange completes acquisition of FTX EU, set to launch MiFID II-regulated crypto products.

Backpack, a crypto exchange founded by former FTX executives, has acquired FTX EU, the former European arm of FTX, as part of its expansion into the European market. The acquisition, approved by the FTX bankruptcy court and the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission, will allow Backpack to offer regulated crypto derivatives and other financial products to European users, the company said in a blog announcement.

The new European branch will provide a range of crypto derivatives, including perpetual futures. This comes as other exchanges exit Europe, leaving a gap in the regulated crypto derivatives market. Backpack chief executive Armani Ferrante says becoming a MiFID II-licensed entity “demonstrates our dedication to meeting the highest regulatory standards and is a significant step to bringing transparent, secure, and regulated crypto trading to an underserved European market.”

In addition to offering new products, Backpack EU will handle the distribution of FTX bankruptcy claims to FTX EU customers. Backpack EU will also integrate traditional payment systems, allowing users to make payments across Europe via SEPA and wire transfers, the announcement reads.

The company plans to reactivate its EU license and launch Backpack EU in Q1 2025, though no exact timeframe has been provided for the launch.

Founded in 2022 by Armani Ferrante, an early employee of Alameda Research, Backpack was initially launched as the non-custodial Backpack Wallet. In November 2022, during the collapse of FTX, Backpack lost $14.5 million, which was 88% of its operating funds. Despite that setback, the team chose to continue building with minimal funding.