Roughly $48 million worth of cryptocurrency was moved in unusual transactions on August 14 from wallets linked to Turkish digital asset platform BtcTurk, triggering a suspension of deposits and withdrawals.
Blockchain monitoring tools detected the activity across several networks, including Ethereum, Avalanche, Arbitrum, Base, Optimism, Mantle, and Polygon, according to on-chain analysts. Most of the assets were transferred to two wallets before being swapped into other tokens.
The incident was first flagged about 30 minutes before BtcTurk took its trading systems partially offline. The exchange said it was working with security teams to assess the breach and protect remaining funds.
Funds Shifted Across Multiple Chains
Data from blockchain trackers showed coordinated transfers from BtcTurk-linked addresses shortly before trading restrictions were announced. The movement spanned multiple blockchains, with large amounts of ether (ETH) and other tokens leaving the exchange’s hot wallets.
Analysts noted that such activity often signals a security compromise, though BtcTurk has not yet confirmed whether the incident was the result of an external hack or internal breach. The addresses receiving the funds began exchanging the assets for other cryptocurrencies soon after the transfers were completed.
Security Response Underway
BtcTurk said it had contacted relevant teams and was taking “immediate action” to secure its systems. The company did not provide a timeline for resuming normal operations.
The scale of the incident places it among the larger cryptocurrency security events in recent months, following a string of cross-chain exploits targeting centralized exchanges and decentralized finance platforms.
Turkish authorities have not commented on the case, and it remains unclear whether law enforcement has been formally notified. Cybersecurity experts say tracing stolen crypto assets across multiple networks is challenging, particularly if the attacker uses privacy tools or mixers.
BtcTurk, one of Turkey’s oldest cryptocurrency trading platforms, has previously reported more than 5 million registered users. The platform is expected to release additional details once its internal investigation is complete.
