Turkish cryptocurrency exchange Vebitcoin has come under criticism after it halted all operations amid news that its Chief Executive Ilker Bas and three other employees have been detained, Bloomberg reports. According to the exchange's Twitter account, the platform was experiencing delays in withdrawals due to high traffic.
Subscribe to our Telegram channel to stay up to date on the latest crypto and blockchain news.
The exchange also closed for its users without any warning in advance like another cryptocurrency exchange THODEX did a few days ago. The Financial Crimes Investigation Board has reportedly already banned Vebitcoin's bank accounts and opened a probe.
As iHodl earlier reported, the Turkish police detained over sixty people as part of the investigation into crypto exchange THODEX. According to the police, thousands of Turks have filed criminal complaints against the exchange. THODEX stopped all its operations last Wednesday without warning.
As a result, the 391,000 active clients of the platform lost access to their wallets. Lawyer Oğuz Evren Kılıç, who filed a lawsuit against THODEX, said that the exchange's head Faruk Fatih Özer left Turkey on Tuesday night and deleted his social media accounts. In addition, the company stopped all customer support. Kılıç estimates that the amount of funds in THODEX's accounts to be between $2 billion and $10 billion.
Access more than 50 of the world's financial markets directly from your EXANTE account – including NASDAQ, London Stock Exchange and Tokyo Stock Exchange.