WazirX to Restart on 24th October With 0% Trading Fees

WazirX, India’s leading crypto exchange, is restarting operations on 24th October. This follows the successful completion of its restructuring process, sanctioned by the Hon’ble High Court of Singapore, and backed overwhelmingly by creditors.

This marks a fresh chapter in the platform’s journey to rebuild trust, transparency, and innovation.

As part of the Restart Offer, all users will enjoy 0% trading fees across all trading pairs. This initiative will help WazirX users to trade without the burden of fees on each trade.
Phased Launch Approach

The relaunch will begin with certain crypto-to-crypto pairs and USDT/INR pair, followed by the gradual expansion of additional markets in the coming days.
Renewed Commitment to Security and Transparency

In a major step towards enhancing fund safety, WazirX has partnered with BitGo, a global leader in digital asset custody, to safeguard platform assets through institutional-grade, insured custody solutions.

Nischal Shetty, Founder of WazirX, said,

At the heart of everything we do is our mission to make crypto accessible to every Indian. I want to thank the WazirX community for their patience through these difficult times.

Asset security is currently a crucial aspect in the global crypto ecosystem. Our partnership with BitGo adds an additional layer of trust and protection with world-class custody standards, as we restart. This isn't just a return to operations, it’s a reinforcement of our integrity which we’ve always strived for.”

Earlier this week, WazirX completed token swaps, merger, delisting, migration of tokens and any rebranding that the tokens may have undergone. WazirX is able to restart operations and initiate token distributions to creditors within 10 business days as estimated. In addition, the platform is working towards issuance of Recovery Tokens to creditors.

For more information, visit www.wazirx.com

Singapore High Court Grants Leave for Zettai to propose its Scheme of Arrangement to Creditors, Clearing the Path for WazirX’s Restructuring

In a significant development, the Singapore High Court has given the decision in favour of Zettai Pte Ltd, allowing the company to convene a scheme meeting with the users of the cryptocurrency exchange, WazirX. This decision is a significant step in Zettai’s efforts to distribute assets associated with WazirX to users, and to revive operations of the platform. The Court granted a 16-week moratorium to Zettai, which provides the necessary time and legal protection to carry out the restructuring process. In addition, the Court also granted permission to Zettai to vary the scheme meeting process, which is intended to streamline the process and facilitate the participation of more users in the scheme meeting.

The Court found that there was no abuse of process and also observed that there was no proper or sufficient evidence presented before the Court of wrongdoing or misconduct, contrary to suggestions made by certain users of the platform that Zettai had orchestrated the cyberattack. This observation comes at a crucial time, following a joint statement from the governments of the United States, Japan, and South Korea identifying the North Korean Lazarus group as responsible for the cyberattack. The Court also took note that whilst there may be a number of creditors who have voiced objections to Zettai’s application, there is also the possibility of a silent majority of users who support the application but have decided to be passive in the process.

Zettai wishes to take this opportunity to reiterate its commitment to addressing user concerns and implementing a comprehensive restructuring plan to facilitate recovery for users of the platform in a structured manner.

Key Components of the Approved Scheme:

1. Debt Restructuring Framework: The Scheme establishes a structured approach for reorganizing the liabilities associated with WazirX to optimize returns for all platform users.
2. Token Distribution: Rebalanced platform liquid assets will be distributed in tokens to scheme creditors within 10 business days of the effective scheme date.
3. Recovery Token Implementation: The Scheme includes the issuance of recovery tokens (RTs) and distribution of recoveries through RT purchase mechanisms.
4. Platform Reactivation: Plans include the strategic reactivation of the WazirX platform, featuring new capabilities and the launch of a decentralized exchange (DEX).
5. Profit-Sharing Structure: Available net profits generated during a 36-month period would be used to fund RT purchases.

I thank the court for granting us leave to convene the scheme meeting and for acknowledging our efforts. We are leaving no stone unturned to facilitate recovery to the users at the earliest and appeal to the users to vote in favour of the scheme. — said Nischal Shetty, Founder of WazirX.

Next Steps

The creditors' meeting is scheduled to be held online, with voting on the proposed Scheme of Arrangement to take place thereafter electronically. Zettai will notify creditors of details of this process shortly.

Zettai remains committed to maintaining transparency and fairness throughout this process. Zettai believes that the proposed Scheme represents the most efficient and equitable path toward resolution for all platform users, and strongly encourages platform users to support the Scheme, as it offers the potential for enhanced recoveries compared to alternative scenarios.

WazirX's Nishchal Shetty Co-founded Shardeum Raises $5.4 Mn from Amber Group, Galxe, J17 Capital, Others

Shardeum, an EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) -based, linearly scalable smart contract platform, has raised $5.4 million in a strategic round from Amber Group, Galxe, J17 Capital, JSquare, TRGC and others.

The fresh funding, which ahead of its mainnet launch later this year, will be used to support the growth of its ecosystem.

The blockchain startup, co-founded by WazirX's Founder Nishchal Shetty, had earlier raised $18.2 million in a seed round at a valuation of $200 million from 60 prominent investors, in October last year. The investors in that round included Jane Street, Struck Crypto, The Spartan Group, Big Brain Holdings, DFG, Ghaf Capital Partners, Foresight Ventures and others.

Shardeum's mainnet launch is expected in late this year. A mainnet refers to a fully developed and operational digital network that serves as the primary infrastructure for a particular blockchain project.

Founded last year, Shardeum is a layer-1 EVM-based, linearly scalable blockchain smart contract platform that provides low gas fees while maintaining true decentralization and solid security through dynamic state sharding. Shardeum uses sharding to increase TPS with the addition of every new node.

In an official blog announcement, Kelsey McGuire, Chief Growth Officer at Shardeum, said, "The completion of this strategic raise from key participants puts Shardeum in position to expand on our mission to cultivate a global and diverse community. Given Shardeum’s consensus design and use of dynamic state sharding, validator participation is highly accessible regardless of user access to computing resources. This raise allows us to continue to prioritize decentralization by growing our community of participants worldwide through education and other key Initiatives."

Shardeum will scale linearly thanks to dynamic state sharding. Every node that joins theShardeum network automatically raises the number of transactions per second (TPS), ensuring cheap transaction costs even as use grows.

As July 7, 2023, over 7.4 million transactions have taken place on the Shardeum testnet, with 820K+ accounts and over 230K contracts deployed.

Shardeum will have SHARD (SHM) as its token, which is in the development stage currently. 

​Common Man Suffer while Rich get Richer - 68% of Wealthy Individuals Invested in Cryptocurrencies, Says Global Study

A latest survey by one of world's largest financial advisory firm, deVere Group, says that 68% of wealthy individuals across the globe will invest or have already invested in cryptocurrencies.

The survey, conducted by the Dubai-based deVere Group, an independent financial advisory organization, polled over 700 of the firm’s clients who reside in various countries, including the U.S., the U.K., Australia, Qatar, Switzerland, Spain, Germany, Japan, Qatar, Switzerland, Mexico, Hong Kong, Spain, France and South Africa.

In the survey’s context, a high-net-worth individual was considered one with over £1 million ($1.3 million) worth of investable assets.

"This is the sad part of Crypto ban. Only the common man will suffer while the rich get richer. Always the same #IndiaWantsCrypto," said Nischal Shetty, founder of WazirX, in his series of tweets made objecting India's crypto ban.

Nigel Green, founder and CEO of deVere Group said, "The research shows that wealthy individuals are increasingly seeking exposure to cryptocurrencies. There is growing, universal acceptance that cryptocurrencies are the future of money – and the future is now. High net worth individuals are not prepared to miss out on this and are rebalancing their investment portfolios towards these digital assets."

"Crypto is to money what Amazon was to retail. Those surveyed clearly will not want to be the last one on the boat," he said.

Speaking against the crypto ban, WazirX founder Nischal said in a tweet, "This is day 187. We need to tweet to our minister everyday till we get a reply. The more we tweet, more chances of our voice being heard & crypto getting a positive regulation in India. RT, Like, Share as much as you can every day. Only together can we make this happen.

Nischal, a software developer turned entrepreneur, who has built Crowdfire, an AI-driven marketing assistant used by over 15 million users, has launched Crypto Exchange start-up WazirX in March 2018 in response to the current exchange standards in India.

Dear @arunjaitley @narendramodi

Survey by one of world's largest financial advisory firm says that 68% of wealthy individuals will invest in Crypto

This is the sad part of Crypto ban. Only the common man will suffer while the rich get richer. Always the same #IndiaWantsCrypto pic.twitter.com/OMqPnsVtw3

— Nischal (WazirX) ⚡️ (@NischalShetty) May 7, 2019

In December last year, there were some reports that India may lift ban on cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum or Ripple as an interdisciplinary committee on cryptocurrencies in India formed by the central government had reportedly recommended lifting the ban and legalize it.

However, no substantial steps or even discussions, opinions were heard from crypto entrepreneurs. And, amid general elections in the country, the matter again gets back into long waiting queue.

Last year in May, Indian apex court, the Supreme Court (SC) of India, barred all high courts from filing petitions against Reserve Bank of India's cryptocurrency ban. The move comes when several cryptocurrency firms had filed a petition with the high court saying -- The RBI’s new policy is "arbitrary, unfair and unconstitutional".

Nonetheless, few leading banks and top notch companies of the country including Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL), Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), HDFC Bank and ABG Shipyard and few others, have launched crypto and blockchain-based pilots for internal treasury management. These organizations have reportedly integrated cryptos and distributed ledger technology (DLT) into their operations, using the nascent technologies to pay vendors, suppliers and as a transparent treasury management tool,

Source - Irish Tech News