Binance CEO Richard Teng Says Crypto Exchange Has Frozen $5,300,000 in Digital Assets Linked to BtcTurk Hack

Binance CEO Richard Teng says the world’s largest crypto exchange is helping in the probe of hacked Turkish cryptocurrency market BtcTurk.

In a post on the social media platform X, Teng says that Binance is assisting BtcTurk in the investigation and has so far frozen over $5.3 million worth of the stolen crypto assets.

“Our investigations and 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.”

BtcTurk, one of Turkey’s largest crypto exchanges, says it detected the cyber attack on its platform on June 22nd. 

In a statement, the exchange says the security breach affected the hot wallets of 10 cryptocurrencies but the cold wallets that hold most of the assets are safe. 

BtcTurk says it is halting deposits and withdrawals until the investigation is complete, but assures customers that their funds will remain intact. 

“BtcTurk’s financial strength is well above the amounts affected by this attack, and user assets will not be affected by these losses. Our teams are carrying out detailed research on the subject. At the same time, official authorities were contacted.”

Pseudonymous on-chain investigator ZachXBT says the suspected perpetrator moved $54.2 million worth of Avalanche (AVAX) and then withdrew over $46 million worth of Bitcoin (BTC) from Coinbase and Binance.

“I conducted a timing analysis and found highly probable BTC withdrawals made shortly after the AVAX deposits at both Coinbase and Binance.

587.75 BTC ($38.1 million) was withdrawn from Coinbase to: bc1q7pkc7h8td55s4em7tmlvd42wahjd4hm8lf035n

122.66 BTC ($7.95 million) was withdrawn from Binance to: bc1qezradgkklz3gczk9jjzn922ye7pgj4yd9pnupv.”

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