Thodex, one of the largest crypto exchanges in Turkey has been unavailable since Wednesday, and its CEO has left the country.
Users of the platform noticed on April 21 that they weren’t able to access Thodex anymore while an error alert was showing on their screens. When customers tried to go on the official website, a message said every transaction was halted by the crypto exchange and it could take four or five business days.
More than 300.000 users were left in confusion, and losses could reach $2 billion, while Thodex Chief Executive Officer Faruk Fatih Ozer has fled the country. Now the company’s accounts have been blocked from the Turkish government, and its headquarters are under police custody.
Bedirhan Oguz Basibuyuk, the lawyer of Thodex, declared he doesn’t know the location of Ozer, but he doesn’t intend to go back before paying back all users. When the lawyer was asked why the CEO of the company ran away, he answered that Ozer would have been “either arrested or committed suicide.”
“There was a decline in Thodex’s assets. When too many users demanded their money back, the company was unable to meet those.”
Bedirhan Oguz Basibuyuk, the company’s lawyer
“From today on, my sole aim is to repay my debt to you. The day I repay all my debt, I will return to my country and give myself into justice.”
Faruk Fatih Ozer, CEO of Thodex
Turkey and cryptocurrencies
This comes less than a week after Turkey banned crypto payments for goods and services. The “Regulation on the Disuse of Crypto Assets in Payments” was released for the press by the central bank. Only the use of digital currencies for payments has been affected by this new regulation, and trading hasn’t been prohibited.
This measure was taken because of cryptocurrencies’ volatility and the felonious activity they are supposedly used for. Digital wallet theft and the impotence of the government to intervene were also mentioned in the press release.
