Turkish cryptocurrency exchange goes dark, CEO goes missing
Investing.com
Published Apr 22, 2021 12:40
By Samuel Indyk
Investing.com – Turkish cryptocurrency exchange Thodex suddenly went dark yesterday and now its almost 400,000 users have no access to funds and assets on the site.
In a statement on Twitter , the exchange denied anything untoward, saying the company had received unspecified outside investment that would require trading to suspended for between four and five days. However, there are doubts about the truth of the statement and it is suspected that the owner and CEO of the platform has left the country.
The Anadolu Agency reported that the Public Prosecutors Office in Istanbul has now opened an investigation into the cryptocurrency exchange and has appealed to personnel for their testimonies.
Reports have suggested that assets tied up in the exchange could be worth up to $10bln.
h2 Regulation/h2The news comes less than a week after the Turkish Central Bank said they were going to ban payments in cryptocurrencies.
One of the reasons cited by the central bank was that wallets can be stolen or used unlawfully without authorisation from holders.
A senior economic adviser to Turkish President Erdogan, Cemil Ertem, said the government should take action “as soon as possible”, according to Bloomberg.
The price of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is relatively unreactive to the news. At 12:40BST Bitcoin trades just below $55,000.
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