In a startling announcement, Thodex stated that it was unable to continue operating as it has been. This has caused panic among its investors that they might lose their investments on the exchange. Thodex is one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in Turkey.
Founder went AWOL
Faruk Fatih Ozer, the CEO and Founder of Exchange has since gone missing. The 27-year old man has since left Turkey and news is headlining with no confirmed reports on how much will be gone. To date, the actual number of users who are affected has yet to be ascertained. Ozer released a statement from an unknown location that he will repay the investors and later return to the country to own up to this.
Action taken against Thodex
On this end, the government of Turkey has since raided Thodex’s head office in Istanbul and blocked the company’s account. Preliminary reports have reported that the loss could go up to US$2 billion and that about 390,000 user’s funds would be gone. Ozer however, has disputed this, claiming that only about 30,000 of its active users are affected.
Call for tighter regulations
The recent surge in cryptocurrency prices has caused a lot of new issues, especially with more scams happening in a lot of platforms. Hence, this has prompted more calls for stricter regulation for cryptocurrencies in Turkey. This came from a senior official from the President’s office. Meanwhile, market observers are also calling for action to be taken in the shortest time possible.
Why is this happening to Thodex?
Turkey has had a boom in the cryptocurrency market recently and Thodex was among those that came out then. Other financial platforms have been under-performing in recent months with inflation reaching over 10% while the Turkish Lira has been lower than before too. This has pushed investors to look at alternative investments like cryptocurrencies. At the time of writing, Ozer is still uncontactable as well as the call center of Thodex.
