Case of Thodex exchange aka Turkish Mt.Gox?

[dkbit98]

Thodex, largest crypto exchange from Turkey that was founded and working since 2017, stopped working over night and over 390,000 traders are unable to withdraw their funds that are estimated around 2 billion dollars!
All that is happening after Turkey recently announced that Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies will not be allowed as payment option in their country.


Archive: https://archive.is/4ouqi

They posted hilarious statement on their Tweeter account claiming that some outside investment requires them to suspend trading for 4-5 days.
https://twitter.com/thodexofficial

It is interesting that Thodex CEO Faruk Fatih Özer left the country on April 20 from Istanbul Airport, deleted all his social media accounts, and there are suspicions he went to Thailand with all coins.

Istanbul Anatolian Chief Public Prosecutor announced they launched investigation against Thodex, and other lawyer filed criminal complaint against Özer for fraud.


Deleted twitter account: https://twitter.com/farukfatihozer

Even Bloomberg wrote an article about this:
https://archive.ph/gJssm

Conclusion:
Not your keys, not your crypto.
Don't keep your coins on any exchange however big and safu they are.

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[NeuroticFish]

It is interesting that Thodex CEO Faruk Fatih Özer left the country last night and he deleted all his social media accounts.

Yeah, he may or may not restart the business elsewhere. However, it looks bad; I would not have too many expectations.
Indeed, not your keys, not your coins.

[stompix]

It is interesting that Thodex CEO Faruk Fatih Özer left the country on April 20 from Istanbul Airport, deleted all his social media accounts, and there are suspicions he went to Thailand with all coins.

What's this obsession with fleeing to Thailand? Cazes (alphabay) fled an died there, Greenwood (onecoin) was arrested there Medvedev and Karlsson were caught there and those are the ones I remember reading about, probably there a lot more that were low-level scammers who weren't worth a first-page article. Why the hell do they still believe that's safe heaven?

But no this is no Mt.Gox, Mt.Gox was months of long drama, it involved bots, hacks, price manipulation a ton of lies, this is at best a mintpal or wex episode, you can't even compare it to quadriga.

390,000 traders

This is going to hurt more than the ban imposed by the goverment.

[SFR10]

and there are suspicions he went to Thailand with all coins.
~Snipped~
Even Bloomberg wrote an article about this:
https://archive.ph/gJssm

Not sure which one is more reliable but Bloomberg mentioned that a news agency has spotted him in "Albania".
There's a new update on their "website"/Twitter account and this is the google translation: Screenshot
^{- I've highlighted some of its parts and hopefully, it gets sorted out but a part of me says to not get my hopes up for the victims [unfortunately].}

[NeuroticFish]

a news agency has spotted him in

He will be spotted in whatever countries don't have extradition treaties with Turkey.
I am expecting that he ran before they've started searching for him. In that kind of countries one has to be extremely cautious, whether he did wrong or not.
However, the chances he's clean are slim.

[dkbit98]

Not sure which one is more reliable but Bloomberg mentioned that a news agency has spotted him in "Albania

It appears that he is really in Albania (country well known for it's corruption and illegal stuff), Turkish justice ministry asked for Faruk Fatih Ozer extradition from Albania
and according to new AP article 62 people around Turkey have been detained by police in this investigation.
Ozer denied any claims that is a scam, he made a post on his instagram account that was not deleted, and he said that all this campaign against his business.

But no this is no Mt.Gox, Mt.Gox was months of long drama, it involved bots, hacks, price manipulation a ton of lies, this is at best a mintpal or wex episode, you can't even compare it to quadriga.

First time I heard about Thodex was few days ago so I don't know what happened from 2017 to now, but Turks knows situation much better and they compare it with Mt.Gox


https://twitter.com/UlgenKhan/status/1384966974611107840

[stompix]

In terms of propaganda what happened now with Thodex is the perfect fuel for the critics, if this kind of exit scams or runaway would not be that common in crypto one could think it was actually orchestrated, and to be honest knowing Erdogan ...hmmm,

Imagine this scenario:

The exchange goes down, people are enraged, the press that is controlled by the government prints only horror stories about how people lost their money, how they are on the brink of committing suicide all that crap.
Meanwhile, the owner of Thodex, who was "on the run", suddenly is captured by the brave Turkish police, and miraculously the benevolent Turkish authorities will reimburse half of the coins as that is all they could get their hand on, except the 1/4 that goes to Thodex boss and 1/4 that is lost to the poor secret service that is in such a bad need for money.
Everyone that counts in the eyes of the government wins from it.

Seriously, this damn timing, just a week after the ban?

"Wallets can be stolen or used unlawfully without the authorization of their holders," the central banks warned last week.

First time I heard about Thodex was few days ago so I don't know what happened from 2017 to now, but Turks knows situation much better and they compare it with Mt.Gox

Well, it's possible there is more to it but nothing will even match the drama of Mt.Gox and Willy.
Just the fact that neither of us and probably less than 1% of the international board have heard of this before gets him a 10 points penalty compared to Gox from the start.

[bbc.reporter]

It appears the bear is beginning to ready itself for an unexpected pounce on the market and the cause will certainly be regulatory crackdown on the cryptospace. The actions are there already and clear to see. Janet Yellen in America will have the most popular campaign. The laws and regulations of the Biden administration have not yet been approved and the bull market might continue, however, it might not be long before the bear.


Nonetheless, volatility in digital currency prices and a potential regulatory clampdown are big risks for the industry. Jesse Powell, CEO of U.S. exchange Kraken, told CNBC earlier this month that he thinks there “could be some crackdown” on cryptocurrencies.

Source https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/23/bitcoin-btc-ceo-of-turkish-cryptocurrency-exchange-thodex-missing.html

[dkbit98]

Seriously, this damn timing, just a week after the ban?

There is something more behind this story, because we have second crypto exchange from Turkey called Vebitcoin also stopped trading and posted some information about unspecified financial difficulties.
Turkish authorities started an investigation of this exchange and its owners following similar scenario like for Thodex exchange.
Vebitcoin is smaller exchange with reported $60 million daily trading but in 2020 they claimed they are partners of BitGo:


https://twitter.com/Vebitcointr/status/1268513425157697539

Son dönemde kripto para sektöründe yaşanan gelişmelerden dolayı işlemlerimizde beklenenden çok daha fazla bir yoğunluk meydana geldi. Bu durumun finansal alanda şirket olarak bizi çok zorlu bir sürece sürüklediğini üzülerek belirtmek isteriz. Tüm düzenlemeleri ve hak taleplerinizi gerçekleştirebilmek adına faaliyetlerimizi durdurma kararı aldık. Size en yakın sürede bilgilendirme sağlayacağız.

G translate:
Due to the recent developments in the crypto money industry, our transactions have become much more intense than expected. We would like to state with regret that this situation has led us to a very difficult process in the financial field. We decided to cease our activities in order to fulfill all regulations and claims. We will provide you with information as soon as possible.

https://www.vebitcoin.com/

All this looks like some kind of Turkish government crackdown against all crypto exchanges located in their country and I think there are around 30 exchanges located in Turkey buit coingecko is showing only 10, with Paribu and BtcTurk Pro being largest currently.
https://www.coingecko.com/en/exchanges?country=TR

[stompix]

There is something more behind this story, because we have second crypto exchange from Turkey called Vebitcoin also stopped trading and posted some information about unspecified financial difficulties.

Yeah, financial difficulties...
Vebitcoin: Turkey arrests four people after cryptocurrency collapses

Mehmet Nadir Yagci, a prosecutor in the south-western city of Mugla, said the four arrested were administrators and personnel of the platform.
On Friday, Vebitcoin announced on its website it had stopped all activities "in order to fulfil all regulations and claims". It was not immediately clear how many people had been affected.

Well, they will have a lot of free time to concentrate on regulations and claims.

If I were a platform operator in Turkey right now I would be wary of cars driving at high speed around me or strangers with pointy umbrellas in the elevator, there must be something behind this wave and probably some got the message and complied, some decided to make a run for it and some waited too much before making a move and are now behind bars.

Oh, and judging by what posters on Reddit say, the stolen sum is nowhere near 2 billion, more like a hundred and some claim even less than that.
Google is making a mess of the translation but here is one.

[Lachrymose]

The media have exaggerated the news as Turkish government want to control exchanges and tax cryptocurrencies. Thodex only had 30,000 active users and only around $100 million was stolen. Also, Vebitcoin exchange had almost no active users.

[dkbit98]

The media have exaggerated the news as Turkish government want to control exchanges and tax cryptocurrencies. Thodex only had 30,000 active users and only around $100 million was stolen. Also, Vebitcoin exchange had almost no active users.

Bombastic headlines sales better for sure, but nobody can find founder Ozer who is probably still hiding in Albania,
police even arrested his brother and sister for questioning, and they found out he is holding more coins worth $2.7 million on Paribu and BTCTurk exchange, so it is very serious.
If you want to be precise Thodex reported portfolio was $108 million but who knows what the real number is, and it is probably much higher.
I checked the number of visits on their website with SimilarWeb and they had 1,043,000 visits, compared with largest Turkish exchange Paribu has 9,488,00 and BTCTurk 1,143,000 visits,
so Thodex is not so small like you claim but Vebitcoin is.

[Lachrymose]

The media have exaggerated the news as the Turkish government wants to control exchanges and tax cryptocurrencies. Thodex only had 30,000 active users and only around $100 million was stolen. Also, the Vebitcoin exchange had almost no active users.

Bombastic headlines sales better for sure, but nobody can find founder Ozer who is probably still hiding in Albania,
police even arrested his brother and sister for questioning, and they found out he is holding more coins worth $2.7 million on Paribu and BTCTurk exchange, so it is very serious.
If you want to be precise Thodex reported portfolio was $108 million but who knows what the real number is, and it is probably much higher.
I checked the number of visits on their website with SimilarWeb and they had 1,043,000 visits, compared with the largest Turkish exchange Paribu has 9,488,00 and BTCTurk 1,143,000 visits,
so Thodex is not so small like you claim but Vebitcoin is.

Btcturk has not 1 million but 4.87 million visits, and also, Thodex used to -advertise a lot but had no active users-. Although there are more than 400 active users on the Bitcointalk Turkish boards, only 1 person uses Thodex. I haven't even met anyone using Thodex on my 4350-person Telegram channel. In our investment group of 12 people, no one has used Thodex during their lifetime. A few Turkish analysts checked the history of the wallets and found that the -maximum- amount lost can be up to $150 million total. The amount lost is definitely not a billion.

[dkbit98]

Btcturk has not 1 million but 4.87 million visits, and also, Thodex used to -advertise a lot but had no active users-. Although there are more than 400 active users on the Bitcointalk Turkish boards, only 1 person uses Thodex. I haven't even met anyone using Thodex on my 4350-person Telegram channel. In our investment group of 12 people, no one has used Thodex during their lifetime. A few Turkish analysts checked the history of the wallets and found that the -maximum- amount lost can be up to $150 million total. The amount lost is definitely not a billion.

I used data from coingecko website that may not be fully up to date, but whatever true numbers are it is clear they have been one of the largest exchanges in your country because you can't fake millions of visits so easy.
They also made big manipulation months before with giving free doge coin giveaways to everyone who registered on Thodex exchange, and that was top traded coin with over 50% of total traded volume, and they did have nearly 400k created accounts.
https://www.coingecko.com/en/exchanges?country=TR

Last recorded 24h volume for Thodex exchange on CMC website shows $585,513,644 that is higher number than currently Paribu exchange has:
https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/thodex/

[Lachrymose]

Btcturk has not 1 million but 4.87 million visits, and also, Thodex used to -advertise a lot but had no active users-. Although there are more than 400 active users on the Bitcointalk Turkish boards, only 1 person uses Thodex. I haven't even met anyone using Thodex on my 4350-person Telegram channel. In our investment group of 12 people, no one has used Thodex during their lifetime. A few Turkish analysts checked the history of the wallets and found that the -maximum- amount lost can be up to $150 million total. The amount lost is definitely not a billion.

I used data from coingecko website that may not be fully up to date, but whatever true numbers are it is clear they have been one of the largest exchanges in your country because you can't fake millions of visits so easy.
They also made big manipulation months before with giving free doge coin giveaways to everyone who registered on Thodex exchange, and that was top traded coin with over 50% of total traded volume, and they did have nearly 400k created accounts.
https://www.coingecko.com/en/exchanges?country=TR

Last recorded 24h volume for Thodex exchange on CMC website shows $585,513,644 that is higher number than currently Paribu exchange has:
https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/thodex/

As I said before, the billion-dollar loss news is just a rumor. Exchange volumes displayed on sites like Coinmarketcap or Coingecko are not correct. Thodex has only 30,000 active users and the total loss is around $150 million. The reason for the high number of visitors to the site is that the exchange was actively advertising, but this does not mean that every visitor is the exchange's user. There are only two major exchanges in Turkey. One of them is Btcturk and the other is Paribu. Even the owners of these two exchanges think that the claim of Thodex exchange stole $2 billion is ridiculous. Thodex's former name was Koineks. This exchange was used much more actively in the past, but after the name change, Thodex users preferred to use Btcturk, Paribu or Binance instead of Thodex. Therefore, the owner of the exchange realized that he could not handle the withdrawals and ran away with about $150 million.

I mean. This is not a Turkish Mt.Gox.

https://koinbulteni.com/guneri-oral-thodex-aciklama-99557.html

[dkbit98]

Exchange volumes displayed on sites like Coinmarketcap or Coingecko are not correct.

I don't really care what exact numbers are or in owner stole $150M or $2B, fact is that he is a thief and he will be arrested.
We all know that exchanges are faking their volume and doing wash trading but if Thodex did that than BtcTurk and Paribu did the same thing, and I am not surprised that CEO's of BtcTurk and Paribu are trying to minimize the damage to avoid authorities checking them out also.

I mean. This is not a Turkish Mt.Gox.

There is no Turkish Mt.Gox really, but your countryman @OguzEvrenKilic made that comparison.
https://twitter.com/OguzEvrenKilic/status/1384966976590725122

[Lachrymose]

Exchange volumes displayed on sites like Coinmarketcap or Coingecko are not correct.

I don't really care what exact numbers are or in owner stole $150M or $2B, fact is that he is a thief and he will be arrested.
We all know that exchanges are faking their volume and doing wash trading but if Thodex did that than BtcTurk and Paribu did the same thing, and I am not surprised that CEO's of BtcTurk and Paribu are trying to minimize the damage to avoid authorities checking them out also.

I mean. This is not a Turkish Mt.Gox.

There is no Turkish Mt.Gox really, but your countryman @OguzEvrenKilic made that comparison.
https://twitter.com/OguzEvrenKilic/status/1384966976590725122

The lawyer is not an experienced person in cryptocurrencies, he is just dealing with this field as a lawyer, not an investor or an exchange user. However, some people really exaggerated this news in order to become famous or get attention.
Please don't get me wrong. I just wanted to tell people the most accurate information.
Thanks .

[The Sceptical Chymist]

It is interesting that Thodex CEO Faruk Fatih Özer left the country on April 20 from Istanbul Airport, deleted all his social media accounts, and there are suspicions he went to Thailand with all coins.

I'm betting those suspicions turn out to be spot-on if they haven't already (I haven't been following this story and am just reading about it now).  Anyhow, those actions on the part of the CEO indicate "scam" in big, bold letters and I'm not sure what else it could be. 

It's amazing that after all of the exit scams we've seen over the years that they're still happening to this day.  People haven't learned to keep their crypto off exchanges when they're done trading, and these scammers still have the enormous testicles required to pull off such blatant scams as this. 

On a related note, what is this announcement about bitcoin/crypto not being allowed as a payment method in Turkey?  The government hasn't banned crypto, correct?

[Lachrymose]

On a related note, what is this announcement about bitcoin/crypto not being allowed as a payment method in Turkey?  The government hasn't banned crypto, correct?

Cryptocurrencies will not be banned but it is no longer possible to use cryptocurrencies as a payment method in Turkey. The reason for this is that the government cannot keep track of the money that goes abroad and also the government plans to tax cryptocurrency revenues.

[stompix]

We all know that exchanges are faking their volume and doing wash trading but if Thodex did that than BtcTurk and Paribu did the same thing,

And they are most likely still doing it, everybody does.
I would be really amazed if Binance wouldn't do it, after all, CZ is the guy behind the faking at OKCoin, he was the one supervising it.
Bithumb was caught with more than 90%, Huobi the same, and it's quite mind-boggling to see an exchange that brags of a volume x10 more that of Coibabse falling behind in terms of revenue another ten times.

The whole thing can be faked, the number of users can be done by importing a database with random names and ids and emails,  Facebook and tweets likes, comments, share can be bought with useless tokens, viewers can be bought online in packs of millions, even app downloads can be faked.
But it all comes to the surface when everyone does, and you end up with really really stupid claims, as 20% 30% of the population owning crypto, with 10% of them having made transactions with BTC, where the hell do you cram all that usage in a blockchain with just 600m of them and another 300 on ETH?

I would split by at least 5 every claim of users and volume any exchange makes!

It's amazing that after all of the exit scams we've seen over the years that they're still happening to this day.  People haven't learned to keep their crypto off exchanges when they're done trading, and these scammers still have the enormous testicles required to pull off such blatant scams as this. 

Ten years fast forward and we are going to keep wondering about the same thing.