WazirX Releases Proof of Reserves, Around 20% of Holdings are in Shiba Inu

Indian crypto exchange WazirX has released its Proof of Reserves (PoR), sharing wallet addresses and digital asset holdings. Notably, Shiba Inu accounts for the largest proportion of assets on the exchange as over 19% of its holdings are in the form of the meme coin.

In a Wednesday blog post, WazirX said it has released its PoR audit in a bid to “promote full transparency in India’s crypto ecosystem.” The exchange used Coin Gabbar, a third-party crypto asset tracking platform, to display its proof of reserves.

A breakdown of the exchange’s reserves by Coin Gabbar shows over 19% of WazirX’s crypto holdings are in Shiba Inu. The platform has around 6.09 trillion SHIB tokens, worth over $54 million at the rate of $0.0000089. SHIB is currently trading at $0.0000088, down by 4% over the past day. 

Bitcoin, Ethereum, and DogeCoin are the next three biggest holdings of WazirX, each accounting for 8.32%, 9.36%, and 8.17%, respectively. The exchange disclosed its holdings of a total of 301 crypto assets. 

Notably, the reserves are denominated in stablecoin Tether (USDT) despite the fact that WazirX announced last year that it would delist several major stablecoins, including Tether, and convert them to Binance USD (BUSD) after a similar move by Binance. 

Meanwhile, around $257.5 million of the total user assets are held in Binance wallets, with $26.45 million being held in other exchanges. Rajagopal Menon, vice president of WazirX, said:

“By making our wallet addresses, list of exchanges, and independent Proof of Reserves report available to the public, we hope to provide our users with the trust and security they deserve.”

WazirX noted that the PoR report reveals the exchange is not only India’s largest crypto exchange by volume but also India’s largest crypto Exchange by reserves.

Last year, WazirX co-founder Nischal Shetty and Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) had a public Twitter spat about who controls WazirX after Indian regulators opened an investigation into the exchange due to suspected violations of foreign exchange laws. At the time, India’s Directorate of Enforcement (ED) also froze over $8 million of WazirX’s funds. 

As reported, a number of major crypto exchanges, including Binance, Crypto.com, Kraken, Bitmex, Coinfloor, Gate.io, and HBTC have completed their PoR audits following the collapse of FTX that eroded user trust in centralized platforms. 

However, some industry veterans have argued that Proof of Reserves alone is not enough. That is because this practice does not reveal the overall balance sheet and the liabilities of a platform, which makes it hard for users to thoroughly verify the financial health of a company.