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BtcTurk, Türkiye’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, suspended deposits and withdrawals on Thursday afternoon, citing a “technical issue” in its hot wallets, while an alleged suspicious transaction worth $48 million raised attention over a potential breach. Hot wallets are online storage systems that hold a portion of users’ funds to ensure liquidity.
The company stated that trading and Turkish lira transactions remain unaffected, allowing users to continue buying and selling assets or converting holdings into the local currency.
In its statement, BtcTurk said that cryptocurrency deposits and withdrawals were disabled as a precaution and would be reactivated once systems were secure. The company emphasized that the measure was aimed at ensuring the safety of users’ assets while technical checks were carried out.
It also underlined that fiat money transfers, such as deposits and withdrawals in Turkish lira, continued without interruption, allowing customers to access their balances and maintain trading activity on the platform.
However, the statement did not confirm whether any funds were stolen or address the claims.
However, while the company attributed the incident to technical issues, blockchain analytics firm Cyvers reported that approximately $48 million worth of cryptocurrencies may have been transferred from BtcTurk’s hot wallets in a potential security breach.
The firm noted that the outflows involved multiple networks, including ethereum (ETH), avalanche (AVAX), arbitrum (ARB), base (BASE), optimism (OP), mantle (MNT) and polygon (MATIC). Many of the transactions were consolidated into two addresses, a pattern Cyvers said indicated a targeted exploit rather than routine operational activity.
According to Cyvers, BtcTurk moved quickly to activate security protocols after identifying suspicious activity and has been in direct contact with analysts and relevant parties regarding the issue.
In 2024, the company confirmed that $55 million was stolen from the platform in an unauthorized transaction.
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