Turkey’s hundreds of millions of dollars in crypto exchange closed down, less than a week after the country tightened regulations.
Thodex, a cryptocurrency exchange in Turkey, ceased operations on April 22. According to the Coindesk Thodex CEO Faruk Fatih Özer is disappearing, and many users fear that Mr. Ozer will carry hundreds of millions of dollars on the floor.
On April 22, many Thodex users were surprised by the inability to access the exchange. On the official website, Thodex announced to stop all transactions to re-evaluate the offers from partners. The broker also says the process will take 4-5 business days. 
Thodex exchange closed, many reports suggest that the CEO has run away with money. Photo: AA. According to data from CoinMarketCap , before stopping trading assets on Thodex about 585 million USD. Thodex has about 400,000 users, 390,000 of whom are active traders, according to the national news outlet Anadolu . Although Thodex’s announcement promises to return soon, the social media accounts of many of the exchange’s managers have been locked. The exchange’s user support team is also inaccessible. CEO and founder Faruk Fatih Özer closed his Twitter account on April 21. According to the Anadolu A lawyer filed a lawsuit against Ozer on allegations of fraud. Oğuz Evren Kılıç, chief financial law officer of the Ankara Bar Association, said zer fled Turkey on the evening of January 20. This information was revealed to Mr. Kılıç by the police. According to the CNN Turk , the Istanbul police also began investigating Thodex with allegations of fraud. Bloomberg Thodex’s bank account was blocked, and police searched the company’s office. The number of cryptocurrency investors in Turkey has increased rapidly in recent years, as many believe that this can be an inflation hedge. On April 16, Turkey’s Central Bank announced that cryptocurrencies would not be allowed to be used directly or indirectly for payments, and the regulation went into effect on April 30. However, trading cryptocurrencies is not prohibited under the new regulations. Therefore, Thodex’s suspension of operations makes many investors concerned. 
Thodex CEO Faruk Fatih Özer has yet to reappear. Photo: DW. Mehmet, a Turkish investor, said he noticed suspicious signs when Dogecoin traded on Thodex at a much lower price than other exchanges. On April 17, the price of Dogecoin on this exchange was up to 30% lower. As of April 19, Thodex announced a brief shutdown for maintenance related Dogecoin trading. This cryptocurrency, often considered a joke because of its origin, accounts for 53% of transaction value on Thodex. The amount of Bitcoin held on this exchange is only equivalent to about $ 10 million. As announced by Thodex, the exchange stopped trading to consider partnering with an unnamed partner. Blockchain professor Ismail Hakki Polat at Kadir Has University in Istanbul said the announcement could mean the exchange is looking for new investors. Attorney Kılıç is giving legal advice to many Thodex users. Mr. Kılıç argued that these users cannot withdraw money from the exchange, whether in the form of fiat money or cryptocurrency. On April 22, the Thodex website updated with more information that the allegations of fraud against this exchange were not true. The announcement also said that the exchange detected about 30,000 suspicious accounts. According to the Coindesk This announcement may have been written by CEO Özer of Thodex himself. He also confirmed that there is a smear campaign aimed at him.
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