WazirX Token WRX Crashes 99% While Shardeum SHM Hits Rock Bottom

Key Highlights

WRX and SHM have crashed over 99%, wiping out massive investor value and signaling a deep trust crisis.
WRX’s daily trading volume has fallen to just $18,750, reflecting extremely weak market demand.
Shardeum investors from the public sale now face near-total losses, with returns reduced to a fraction of initial investments.

Just two cryptocurrencies, created by a single person, currently have a combined value of less than $9 million. Recent news about these tokens is confusing and leaves many things unclear.

This isn’t a story about the initial breach itself – that’s already been covered. This is about what unfolded afterward: where the focus shifted, and the disconnect between what the data revealed and what the company publicly stated.

Currently, the two cryptocurrencies most associated with Nischal Shetty are experiencing significant price drops. However, the projects being developed around these tokens don’t seem focused on fixing the declines; instead, they appear to be aimed at further expansion.

For whom is the question.

The numbers first. Because numbers don’t have a PR team

WRX, the digital currency used on the WazirX exchange, is currently worth about $0.0213, according to CoinMarketCap. It hit its peak price of $5.94 in April 2021, a time when WazirX was the leading cryptocurrency exchange in India and WRX played a key role in rewarding users. However, that was five years ago.

Currently, the token’s value is down 99.64% from its highest point. It’s now worth around $8.13 million, and only $18,750 worth is traded each day. Consider that: a token for an exchange with 16 million registered users is only seeing $18,750 in daily trades. This low trading activity, reflected in a volume-to-market-cap ratio of just 0.23%, suggests the token has been largely abandoned by traders. There are approximately 11,200 people who still hold the token.

The price dropped to a record low of $0.00923 in June 2025, about a year after the security breach. It briefly rose to around $0.04 by the end of 2025, but has been steadily declining since January 2026, losing more than 46% of its value in just three months.

SHM, the token used on the Shardeum blockchain (co-founded by Shetty), is currently worth just $0.0000625. This is a significant drop from its peak price of $0.37 in May 2025, representing a loss of nearly 99.97%. The token’s current market value is around $635,000, and it recently hit a low of $0.0000555 on March 25, 2026.

Shardeum offered its SHM tokens for sale to the public from March to May 2025, with prices ranging from $0.66 to $0.90 per token. Currently, an investment made at the lowest sale price of $0.66 is worth only 0.009% of the original amount. Specifically, a $10,000 investment at that price is now valued at just $0.94.

In October 2025, Shardeum changed its tokenomics, increasing the total supply from 249 million to 60 billion in a 1:240 split. This change was approved by the community with 85% support, aiming to make each token more affordable and appeal to individual investors in India. However, the price of SHM has continued to decrease since the split.

Currently, there are 10.16 billion SHM tokens in circulation. Over the past 24 hours, around $430,000 worth of SHM has been traded, but a significant portion of this trading volume comes from promotions run by WazirX.

What WazirX has been doing instead

As an analyst looking at WazirX’s recovery after the hack, the planned steps seem straightforward – a classic restructuring process. However, the reality is more nuanced. How things *actually* played out depends heavily on which aspects you examine.

As a researcher following the case, I can report that on July 18, 2024, the platform suffered a significant hack, resulting in losses of $234.9 million. This led to an immediate halt in trading and a freeze on all withdrawals. After a period of restructuring, approved by the Singapore High Court in October 2025, we saw trading resume on October 24th. To encourage a fresh start, the platform offered trading with no fees. Fortunately, users received approximately 85% of their previously approved balances.

The final 15% was turned into Recovery Tokens (RTs), which will be distributed in January 2026. These tokens can’t be traded or cashed out, and WazirX needs to demonstrate at least $10 million in recoverable value each quarter before any can be bought back.

Out of the $234.9 million that was taken, about $3 million has been recovered. This means only 1.27% of the stolen funds have been retrieved so far.

There have been no public announcements about Recovery Token buybacks. It’s also unclear if the requirements for starting these buybacks have been fulfilled. Furthermore, the decentralized exchange intended to provide revenue for creditors is still not live.

Despite still having these debts, WazirX actually launched something new during that same period:

In February 2026, the platform launched SHM on the exchange and hosted a trading competition called “Highest Trader Kaun,” offering prizes sponsored by Shardeum. The following month, it introduced perpetual futures contracts in Indian Rupees (INR) with leverage up to 20x. They also partnered with Sikka.fun, a mobile app for launching memecoins built on Shardeum, and gave the first 1,000 users who verified on the app 50,000 SHM each – an airdrop currently worth about $3.12 per person.

These products all direct users, investment, and trading activity to businesses linked to Nischal Shetty. Specifically, WazirX lists and promotes Shetty’s digital token, runs promotions to boost trading of it, and collaborates with a platform built on Shetty’s blockchain – a platform where transaction fees ultimately benefit Shetty’s projects. WazirX’s large user base of 16 million people then serves as the primary way to reach potential users for all of these ventures.

It’s unclear if Shardeum is funding these integrations, or if any profits from SHM trading on WazirX are being used to repurchase Recovery Tokens.

The WazirX ZERO problem

There is another layer to this.

In late November 2025, shortly after resuming operations, WazirX introduced “WazirX ZERO,” a new subscription service. Instead of paying fees for each trade, users could pay a flat monthly fee of ₹99. All users received a 15-day free trial starting December 1st, but many reported being automatically signed up for the paid subscription after the trial ended, even though they hadn’t agreed to it.

Some WazirX users discovered unexpected charges on their accounts, even if they hadn’t used them since a recent security breach. If a user didn’t have enough Indian Rupees (INR) in their account, WazirX apparently sold off some of their other cryptocurrencies to pay for subscription fees. This even happened to accounts that hadn’t been accessed in a long time, which users are calling a deceptive practice.

WazirX referenced previous blog posts and emails to show they had communicated about the situation. However, they didn’t publicly state their refund policy, nor did they confirm if revenue from their ZERO subscription would be used to repurchase Recovery Tokens.

People were immediately and strongly upset. Those who hadn’t been able to access their money for over a year were now seeing small amounts taken from their accounts to cover a service they didn’t request. This wasn’t simply a billing error; it was a complete breakdown of trust.

What $10,000 looks like today

If you invested $10,000 in WRX at its all-time high of $5.94, your holdings are worth $35.86 today.

If you invested $10,000 in SHM at its all-time high of $0.37, you would be left with $1.69.

If you purchased SHM during the initial sale for $0.66 per token, your $10,000 investment would now be worth $9,400.

These aren’t just estimates – these are the actual returns experienced by people who invested in the products associated with Nischal Shetty and continued to hold them.

What the charts are saying

Things have been pretty rough in crypto lately, no doubt about it. But honestly, seeing drops of 99% isn’t just a normal market dip. Bitcoin‘s only down about 15% from its recent peak, and Ethereum has corrected around 40%. But then you look at coins like WRX, down 99.64%, and SHM, practically at zero with a 99.97% drop – that’s a completely different story and feels more like a project failure than a market correction.

The difference in performance isn’t due to overall market feelings. Instead, it’s caused by a few key issues: lasting damage from the recent hack and loss of trust, problems with how the SHM token is designed (like an unlimited supply and a large number of tokens already in circulation), and the market’s growing belief that these projects may not be able to recover.

The extremely low daily trading volume of WRX – just $18,750 – is a major red flag. It indicates very few people or companies are actively buying or selling the token, suggesting a lack of interest from both individual investors and larger institutions. For a token tied to an exchange, trading volume is a key indicator of the platform’s overall health, and this level suggests the platform is struggling.

While SHM’s trading volume of $430,000 appears positive, a significant part of that activity comes from contests and free token distributions organized by exchanges. This means the actual, genuine demand for SHM is probably much lower than it seems.

The uncomfortable question

It’s possible to see a logical path forward for WazirX and Shardeum. Launching futures trading could tap into the expanding Indian market for derivatives, while Sikka.fun aims to attract developers to the Shardeum platform. The subscription model is intended to create a consistent income stream, and the plan involves eventually repurchasing the Recovery Tokens. Ultimately, the goal is to restore user confidence gradually.

That version exists. It is possible.

There’s a troubling situation unfolding where a cryptocurrency exchange, still owing money to users hacked in the past, appears to be directing its customers towards the founder’s new ventures. This includes pushing memecoins to people who haven’t yet recovered their lost funds. It’s concerning that a platform unable to secure its own digital wallets two years ago is now offering extremely high-risk, 20x leverage trading. Furthermore, a small cryptocurrency network is being artificially boosted by marketing campaigns run through its affiliated exchange.

Both versions use the same facts. The difference is which facts you look at first.

Interestingly, the data isn’t based on initial announcements. Instead, it reflects the revised versions, which are analyzed daily and have been for the past year.

In a December 2025 podcast, Shetty explained that he doesn’t dwell on regrets. Instead, he focuses on learning from experiences and continuing to grow.

The question is: forward for whom?

As a researcher, I’ve observed a concerning stagnation – the charts aren’t showing any progress, Recovery Tokens remain unmoved, and crucially, those holding WRX and SHM aren’t seeing any gains either. It seems everything is at a standstill.

They are just watching the numbers go lower.

2026-03-26 15:05