BtcTurk, one of Türkiye’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, said Saturday that it has been hit by a cyberattack, claiming however that the vast majority of assets were held safe.
“Our teams have detected that there was a cyberattack on our platform on June 22, 2024, which caused uncontrolled withdrawals to be processed," the exchange said in the written statement.
"Only some of the balances in the hot wallets of 10 cryptocurrencies were affected by the cyberattack in question, and our cold wallets, where most of the assets are kept, are safe,” it added.
BtcTurk's financial strength far exceeds the amounts affected by this cyberattack and users’ assets will not be affected by these losses, the statement further added, noting that they were carrying out a detailed investigation into the incident.
Furthermore, the exchange noted that officials have also been contacted. Multiple media outlets reported the cyberattack BtcTurk suffered.
“As a precaution, cryptocurrency deposits and withdrawals have been stopped and will be opened as soon as possible once our work is completed,” its statement said.
The exchange concluded by thanking for understanding during the process and pledged to share all developments regarding the issue.
Cryptocurrencies are highly popular in Türkiye and the country is one of the largest crypto trading markets in the world.
Relatively popular worldwide, cryptocurrency use in Türkiye began to increase rapidly after 2020 as a shield against depreciation in the value of the lira.
Faruk Fatih Özer, the founder of Thodex, one of Türkiye's largest crypto exchanges that turned out to be an exit scam, was jailed last year for 11,196 years for defrauding investors.
The Turkish authorities are currently in the process of finalizing new crypto bill, which is expected to regulate crypto assets sector in the country.
The draft law, includes the definitions of crypto assets and stipulates crypto asset service providers to obtain licenses from the Capital Markets Board (SPK), which is set to play a major role as part of the regulation.
