News
Turkey’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, BtcTurk, has been hacked
The use of cryptocurrencies in Turkey began to increase rapidly after 2020 as a defense against a deep decline in the value of the lira.
ANNOUNCEMENT
Turkey’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, BtcTurk, announced on Saturday that its exchange had been hacked, while a leading Bitcoin analyst said the amount of money stolen amounted to nearly 51 million euros.
“Our teams have detected that a cyber attack occurred on our platform on June 22, 2024, which caused uncontrolled withdrawals to be processed. Only some of the balances in hot wallets of 10 cryptocurrencies were affected by the cyber attack in question , and our cold wallets, where the majority of assets are stored, are safe,” the exchange said in the statement.
A hot wallet is a cryptocurrency wallet that is always connected to the Internet or another connected device, while a cold wallet is a wallet that is offline and therefore safe from hackers.
“BtcTurk’s financial strength is well above the amounts affected by this attack and user assets will not be affected by these losses,” the market added.
The exchange further added that they are conducting a “detailed investigation” into the matter and that security authorities have been noticed.
“As a precaution, cryptocurrency deposits and withdrawals have been stopped and will be made available for use as soon as our work is completed,” BtcTurk concluded in the statement.
“We thank you for your understanding during this process and inform you that we will share with you all developments regarding this matter.”
ZachXBT, a well-known Bitcoin analyst, said in a post on /THORChain”. The analyst also attached a cryptocurrency address to their post.
Cryptocurrencies are very popular in Turkey and the country is the fourth largest cryptocurrency trading market in the world.
The use of cryptocurrencies in Turkey began to increase rapidly after 2020 as a defense against a deep decline in the value of the lira.
Faruk Fatih Ozer, the founder of Thodex, one of Turkey’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges that was revealed to be an exit scam, was jailed last year for 11,196 years for defrauding investors of millions of dollars.