BtcTurk, one of Turkey’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, announced that it has suffered a cyber attack. It was reported that the attack took place today and that some of the assets in hot wallets belonging to 10 different cryptocurrencies were affected by the attack. In addition, it was stated that the cold wallets where a large part of the assets are kept are safe, “BtcTurk’s financial strength is far above the amounts affected by this attack, and user assets will not be affected by these losses.”
The statement read:
“Our teams have detected a cyberattack on June 22, 2024 that caused out-of-control withdrawals from our platform. Only some of the balances in the hot wallets of 10 cryptocurrencies were affected by this cyberattack, while our cold wallets, where the vast majority of assets are held, are safe.
BtcTurk’s financial strength far exceeds the amounts affected by this attack and user assets will not be affected by these losses.
Our teams are conducting detailed investigations on the issue. Official authorities have also been contacted. As a precautionary measure, cryptocurrency deposits and withdrawals have been suspended and will be reopened as soon as our work is completed.
We would like to thank you for your understanding in this process and inform you that we will share all the developments on the subject with you.”
Sharp decrease in AVAX and LUNC
In the statement made by BtcTurk, no information was given about which 10 cryptocurrencies were mentioned. On the other hand, it is thought that the sharp drop in AVAX and LUNC prices in the morning hours may be related to this attack. Anonymous blockchain researcher ZackXBT pointed out that the price dropped 10 percent when 1.96 million AVAX worth $ 54.2 million was transferred to Binance, Coinbase and Gate exchanges.
On the other hand, at the same time, LUNC also diverged from the general market and fell sharply by 20 percent. This retreat in the price is also associated with the attack as the amount in the BtcTurk wallet, which holds 300 billion LUNCs, dropped to 4.7 billion. However, it has not yet been confirmed whether the related transactions are related to the attack.
Binance has frozen $5.3 million in stolen funds
Binance CEO Richard Teng said they are assisting BtcTurk with investigations and have so far frozen over $5.3 million. In a statement on his X account, Teng said, “Binance is assisting BtcTurk with investigations and have frozen over $5.3M in stolen funds so far. Our investigations & security teams work around the clock as part of our proactive efforts to protect the ecosystem from bad actors. We will provide further updates as relevant.”