Hundreds of thousands of users of a Turkish cryptocurrency exchange, Thodex, have been left unable to access their digital assets after the trading platform abruptly halted trading Wednesday, spurring fraud allegations and thousands of criminal complaints.
Thedox Exchange posted a statement on its website on Thursday saying it would be closed for four to five days due to a sale process.
“Services will remain closed for about five working days while the share transfer is completed, but users needn’t worry about their investments,” it said. Before the so-called explanation, the trading was the first halt for “six hours planned maintenance work.”
Thodex CEO Faruk Fatih Ozer has been unresponsive and allegedly fled Turkey.
According to a Thodex statement, the crypto exchange has been in partnership negotiations for 3 months. Last week, they detected “an abnormal fluctuation in the company accounts,” which prompted them to close the exchange temporarily.
The statement appears to be written by Ozer, who said that while the company’s technical team was researching the abnormality, he “personally went abroad on April 19, 2021 to make final meetings with foreign investors.”
Ozer goes on to say that the claim he lost his investors’ money is unfounded. Additionally, he said he would be returning to Turkey in a few days to cooperate with judicial authorities and would “do his best to make every effort to prevent the victimization of users.”
Having been operating since 2017, Thodex said “negative” media reports about the company were not true. “Globally renowned banks and funds, whose names we are going to announce when the agreement process is completed, have been wanting to invest in our company and proposed a partnership for a long time,” the statement said. “For this process to be completed, transactions need to be halted and the sale process needs to be completed.”
Nevertheless, the users still have not been able to withdraw their money or access their accounts, so they have taken to Twitter to voice concern that they may have been scammed.
