By George Ward
After the latest turmoil and paranoia in the crypto space fueled by the FTX bankruptcy saga, several crypto exchanges released PoR (proof-of-reserves), revealing their reserve funds. The latest crypto exchange to release its PoR is WazirX, an Indian-based crypto exchange firm.
WazirX Publishes Reserve Funds
On January 11th, the Indian crypto exchange, in a report, said, “we are the largest cryptocurrency firm in India in terms of both reserves and volume.” According to reports, WazirX displayed its proof of reserves on Coin Gabbar.
Coin Gabbar is a 3rd-party cryptocurrency tracking platform that tracks the asset balances on exchanges. The PoR report revealed that WazirX exchange holds users’ assets in different digital assets.
However, the amount held in USDT is as little as $285 million. Furthermore, the report revealed that over 90% of customers’ funds on WazirX are in Binance-based crypto wallets.
The remaining assets of 10% are held in both cold and hot storage wallets. The crypto assets held in cold and hot wallets are about $28.5 million and $256.5 million, respectively.
WazirX noted that it picked Binance due to its industry-leading strict protocols and technical measures. These measures help to safeguard clients’ assets and protect users’ funds on a 1:1 basis if liquidation should occur.
Presently, more than 19% of the assets on the exchange are in the memecoin Shiba Inu. Its second largest crypto holding is Ethereum, which is 9.37%, followed by Bitcoin, which is 8.28%, then 8.18% in Dogecoin.
WazirX Battles With Local Regulators
Although WazirX is the largest crypto exchange in India, it had a tumultuous time last year with local regulators. Local regulators alleged that the firm was facilitating money laundering operations.
Regulators froze the company’s assets for about one month during the investigation period. In a tweet, Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of Binance, distanced Binance from the company.
Several reports had linked Binance as the owner of the Indian exchange. Earlier in 2019, Binance revealed that it had bought WazirX.
However, during the heat of the crisis, Zhao cleared the air saying the transaction never went through. Conversely, there were disputed claims by Nischal Shetty, the CEO of WazirX, who argued that Binance bought the firm and the transaction was successful.
In addition, Binance took the side of local regulators during the saga. The largest crypto exchange discontinued off-chain asset transfer with WazirX.