A popular cryptocurrency platform in Turkey temporarily suspended deposits and withdrawals after security firms tracked $49 million worth of coins leaving the platform in transactions on Thursday morning.
BTCTurk confirmed that it is experiencing a security incident in a statement, writing that an investigation was initiated after they discovered unusual activity in the company’s hot wallets.
The platform said it plans to reopen deposits and withdrawals once the investigation is completed.
“The vast majority of assets are held in our secure cold wallets. Thanks to BTCTurk’s robust financial structure, user assets will not be affected by this situation,” the company said.
“Buying and selling transactions and Turkish Lira deposit and withdrawal transactions continue without interruption.”
Law enforcement has been notified of the incident, the statement adds.
BTCTurk published the statement after multiple blockchain security firms began tracking millions worth of cryptocurrency exiting the platform.
Most of the stolen funds were siphoned in Ethereum, with more than $38.6 million taken out of the platform. The other $10 million was spread across multiple cryptocurrencies, according to security firm PeckShield.
The Istanbul-based company was founded in 2013 and is considered Turkey’s first crypto trading platform. It grew in prominence in 2020 when it became one of the leading sponsors of Turkey’s men’s and women’s national soccer teams.
The incident follows several high-profile crypto thefts that occurred this summer. Last month, more than $40 million worth of cryptocurrency was taken from decentralized exchange GMX. Another $44 million was stolen from Indian crypto platform CoinDCX three weeks ago.
Decentralized finance platform Cork Protocol lost about $12 million in an incident in May.
Overall, more than $2 billion in cryptocurrency was stolen by hackers in the first half of 2025, according to the blockchain security firm Chainalysis.
Most of the total comes from the $1.5 billion stolen from Dubai-based crypto platform Bybit in February by hackers connected to North Korea.
The $2.17 billion stolen so far this year already surpasses the losses seen in all of 2024, and is the highest number seen in the first six months of a year since the company began tracking the figures in 2022.
