Turkish Crypto Exchange Suddenly Goes ‘Dark’

A Turkish crypto exchange known as Thodex has sent alarms across the trading block by halting its operations today without prior notice.

The exchange, which has operated in Turkey since 2017, shared a statement on Twitter today in this regard. Citing some unspecified foreign investment reportedly inbound during the next 4 to 5 days, funds of more than 390,000 active traders have been locked up.

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But this “may well be a scam”, according to Oğuz Evren Kılıç, a Turkish lawyer who has filed a legal complaint against Thodex, as per reports.

Kılıç estimates that the exchange accounts might be holding between $2-10 billion. An inquiry report pertaining to this case has determined that there is “some money in the bank accounts of the exchange and its owners”.

According to some interesting Twitter trends, the Turkish exchange Thodex ran an enormous marketing campaign, rewarding every new sign-up with 150 Dogecoin between 15th March and 15th April. Thousands of new users reportedly flocked to the exchange, and its trading volume reached a daily record of $1.37 billion, the highest daily figure over the past year according to CoinGecko.

In what should have raised alarm bells, however, the exchange sold Dogecoin at a discounted fixed rate of $0.11 from 14th April. However, DOGE was worth $0.42 on April 16.

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The Turkish government has yet to make a public statement on Thodex, given its reluctance to speak more about cryptocurrencies due to some unsolicited trust issues.

It’s even logical to suggest that this incident provides anything but a good look for crypto in the eyes of an aggressive Turkish government.