Vebitcoin, a Turkish crypto exchange that traded an estimated $60 million per day, has ceased operation as authorities have now arrested four of the company's senior employees and froze the exchange's assets. This development comes in the wake of last week's collapse of the Theodex crypto exchange, a result of the founder dissapearing with $2 billion.
As cryptocurrency is an attractive way to preserve savings in Turkey, and almost everyone can establish their own crypto exchange — the cryptocurrency industry in the country is flooded both with scammers and organizations led by people without proper education or experience. Last week crypto exchange Thodex ceased to serve its clients as its founder fled the country with $2 billion. In that case, the authorities jailed six former employees of Thodex but still have not found the missing $2 billion.
Vebitcoin, a cryptocurrency exchange from Turkey, also went offline this week as authorities in the country blocked its domestic bank accounts and detained four people as part of a probe, reports CNBC. Vebitcoin's daily trading volumes before the collapse were about $60 million, according to data from CoinGecko. It is unclear how many people were affected by the Vebitcoin collapse.
The situation with Thodex flop is also developing in Turkey as authorities arrested as many as 62 people allegedly connected to the crypto exchange over the week, reports BBC. Among the arrested are siblings of Faruk Fatih Özer, the CEO who went missing with $2 billion. Turkish government news agency Anadolu claims that Güven Özer and Serap Özer assisted their relatives and played major roles in the scam scheme. Both hold or held millions of U.S. dollars on crypto accounts on Binance, BtcTurk, and Paribu.
Turkey is in the process of hardening its stance on crypto currencies and has already banned crypto payments.
