There's a moment every WazirX user remembers — the morning of July 18, 2024, when the news hit. $230 million gone. Not a glitch, not a market crash. A hack. And not a partial one either — it was one of the largest exchange security incidents in Indian crypto history.

I'd been using WazirX since 2020. Had a decent amount sitting there. I was lucky — I'd moved most of it to a hardware wallet three weeks earlier for reasons unrelated to security. But plenty of people I know weren't lucky. Some lost savings they'd built over years.

So when WazirX relaunched in October 2025 with what they called a "completely new security architecture," I was sceptical. I spent 30 days testing the new platform before writing this. What follows is my honest assessment.

The Relaunch: What's Actually Changed

The most significant change is the custody model. WazirX now uses a third-party custodian — they've partnered with Liminal Custody (yes, the same custodian involved in the original hack, which is... a choice) but with a fundamentally different integration. Multi-signature wallets require 4-of-6 key approvals for any large withdrawal. No single party can move funds unilaterally.

They've also implemented 24-hour withdrawal delays on large amounts — anything above ₹5 lakh gets flagged for manual review before processing. That sounds annoying, but honestly? After the hack, I'll take the inconvenience.

What they haven't done: compensated all affected users. The "recovery plan" involves a 55% immediate credit and the remaining 45% in USDT tokens to be redeemed over time. Some users are still unhappy about this. That's fair. But it's better than zero, which is what most hacked exchanges offer.

The New App: Familiar, But Cleaner

The interface feels very similar to the old WazirX, which is intentional — they didn't want to confuse returning users. The trading experience is fine. Chart tools are basic compared to DCX Pro. The P2P marketplace, which WazirX was famous for, is back and working well. INR to USDT via P2P is smooth, the escrow system is solid, and I didn't have any issues in six transactions during my test.

Fees After the Rebuild

Trading fees: 0.2% maker, 0.2% taker. Higher than CoinDCX and Binance India. INR withdrawals are free. The P2P market has no platform fee — the spread between buyers and sellers is where traders make their margin, typically 0.5-1.5% on INR/USDT.

The Support Question

This is where I was pleasantly surprised. WazirX has clearly invested in support post-hack — probably because they've had a lot of very angry users to deal with. My test tickets were resolved in under 8 hours. One withdrawal query was answered in 90 minutes. For an Indian exchange, that's genuinely fast.

Should You Go Back to WazirX?

Here's my honest take: WazirX's security failure in 2024 was catastrophic. The rebuild is genuine and the new architecture is meaningfully better. But the exchange has a credibility deficit that will take years to fully rebuild, not months.

If you're a new user, there's no particular reason to choose WazirX over CoinDCX or Binance India right now. If you're a returning user who had funds stuck in the recovery process, the platform is functional and the P2P marketplace is its strongest feature.

I wouldn't keep more than ₹50,000 on WazirX at this stage. Not because I think they'll be hacked again — I don't — but because trust, once broken at this scale, needs more than 14 months to fully recover. Give them another year. Watch how they handle the compensation process. Then reassess.

Quick Verdict

Fees: 3/5 — Higher than competitors
Security: 3.5/5 — Genuinely improved, but history can't be ignored
P2P Market: 5/5 — Best P2P in India
App Quality: 3.5/5 — Familiar but basic
Support: 4/5 — Surprisingly good post-relaunch
Overall: 3.5/5