Avalanche's AVAX down 10% following BtcTurk exchange hack

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Avalanche’s AVAX token experienced a sharp 10% decline to $24.92 following a security breach that targeted BtcTurk, Turkey’s largest crypto exchange, on Saturday, according to data from CoinGecko and analysis from on-chain detective ZachXBT.

“The culprit has been moving 1.96M AVAX ($54.2M) and transferring to Coinbase/THORChain,” ZachXBT noted in a series of tweets about the incident.

“AVAX is down 10% over past few hours likely due to this entity that started moving, transferring 1.96M AVAX ($54.2M) to Coinbase, Binance, Gate, and bridging via THORChain,” added ZachXBT in a separate post on his Telegram channel.

BtcTurk confirmed the cyberattack on June 22, which led to unauthorized withdrawals. The exact loss remains undisclosed, but the exchange assured that the majority of funds in cold storage are secure and user assets are not at risk.

Established in 2013, BtcTurk is a prominent player in Turkey’s crypto market, offering a range of services including trading and e-wallets. The exchange has temporarily halted crypto deposits and withdrawals and is working with authorities to investigate the breach.

After the incident, Binance CEO, Richard Teng, said in a post on X that Binance actively assisted BtcTurk in the investigation and already recovered $5.3 million in stolen funds transferred to the platform.

Binance is assisting BtcTurk with investigations and have frozen over $5.3M in stolen funds so far.

Our investigations & 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. https://t.co/8j6uMgOPm6

— Richard Teng (@_RichardTeng) June 22, 2024

BtcTurk has become the latest crypto exchange to be targeted by cyberattacks. In late May, Japanese crypto exchange DMM Bitcoin was hit by a security breach. The incident resulted in a loss of 4.502,9 Bitcoins (BTC), equivalent to over $300 million. Earlier this month, DMM Bitcoin announced its plans to reimburse affected customers.

This is a developing story: We’ll give updates on the situation as we learn more.

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