Hackers operating in Turkey drain $48M from BtcTurk

Hackers have struck Turkey’s largest crypto trading platform, reportedly siphoning over $40 million from its hot wallets, in what would become the third incident in just two years.

BtcTurk, among the oldest cryptocurrency exchanges operating in Turkey, confirmed that its attackers had unauthorized access to its hot wallets, allowing them to withdraw funds through several blockchain networks, including Ethereum, Arbitrum, and Polygon. 

According to an X post published by blockchain security firm AnChain, the total losses from the incident amounted to $48 million. The stolen assets were eventually consolidated into a single address used for laundering the funds through subsequent transactions.

BtcTurk says the situation is now contained 

BtcTurk has not provided any information about the 2026 start hack, although several news publications and accounts on X claimed it said the breach was contained. The exchange supposedly temporarily stopped withdrawals and started internal investigations alongside technical checks. 

The company has assured customers that the majority of user funds were not affected, as most assets are stored offline in cold wallets. In August last year, the exchange confirmed social media claims suggesting that around $38 million had been stolen during another hack. At the time, the company also stated “all security measures were taken” to protect user funds.

Dialing back to June 2024, BtcTurk suffered a similar incident that saw $55 million disappear on a whim. A report by crypto audit firm Halborn later suggested that a leaked private key may have been the attack vector in that case.

In a post on X during the August incident, BtcTurk said, “During the checks carried out on August 14, unusual movements were detected in our hot wallets. As a precautionary measure, cryptocurrency deposits and withdrawals have been temporarily suspended. They will be reopened once the work is completed.”

BtcTurk is a low-score exchange with questionable security features compared to global peers, Cryptopolitan’s investigations found. Many of its trading pairs reportedly have low individual trust scores and thin liquidity, and such conditions make it daunting for local crypto users.

Security specialists believe that the immediate financial damage from the January hack may not be the end of the threat facing BtcTurk users. According to AnChain, exchange breaches come just before so-called secondary scams, which may exploit fear and confusion among affected customers and trick them further into willingly issuing out their passwords.

Hackers may take advantage of the frenzy and impersonate exchange support teams, send emails or SMS messages, lying to creditors about compensation or refund plans. They could ask recipients to connect their wallets to an external service to verify eligibility, which could turn out to be a phishing platform that drains their funds.

Turkey is a hotbed for crypto adoption, Chainalysis report reads

As of October 2025, Turkey’s domestic cryptocurrency ecosystem was handling an estimated $300 million in daily trading volume, with 75% of that activity denominated in the Turkish lira.

According to data from blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis, the country recorded nearly $200 billion in annual crypto transactions. Turkey’s crypto transaction volume is nearly four times that of the United Arab Emirates, which dropped to second in the region with $53 billion. The overall year-over-year growth across MENA stands at 33% but it is still trailing the Asia-Pacific and Latin America.

Since early 2021, gross cryptocurrency inflows into Turkey have exceeded $878 billion by mid-2025, Chainalysis reported. 

The Turkish Statistical Institute, published its final inflation data for 2025 that showed consumer prices increased by 0.89% in December from the previous month, bringing annual inflation to 30.89% on a year-on-year basis. 

The 12-month average consumer price index, a benchmark used to calculate rent increases, came in at 34.88%, while food and non-alcoholic beverages recorded an annual increase of 28.31%. Transportation costs climbed 28.44% over the same period, caused by higher fuel prices and operating expenses. 

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