BtcTurk Hack

TOTAL LOST $48.0M
High #130 All-Time Private Key Compromised / Access Control arbitrum avalanche base ethereum mantle optimism polygon

Summarize with AI

ChatGPT Perplexity Claude Grok
Affected Chain arbitrum 7 chains affected
Recovered - No recovery reported
All-Time Rank #130 By amount stolen
Protocol Type Exploit/Access control Target category

Incident Overview

Quick Summary

On August 14, 2025, Turkish cryptocurrency exchange BtcTurk suffered a suspected hack with reports indicating approximately $48-50 million in digital assets were stolen from their hot wallets. The exchange halted cryptocurrency deposits and withdrawals citing a "technical issue," while trading and local currency operations remained active.

Details of the Exploit

Cybersecurity firm Cyvers detected unusual activity across multiple blockchain networks including Ethereum, Avalanche, Arbitrum, Base, Optimism, Mantle, and Polygon, with stolen assets being moved to consolidation addresses and swapped for other cryptocurrencies. BtcTurk confirmed that unusual activity was detected in their hot wallets during inspections conducted on August 14, 2025, prompting them to temporarily suspend cryptocurrency deposits and withdrawals as a precautionary measure. The attacker began systematically swapping stolen assets to Ether using services like MetaMask Swaps.

The exchange assured users that most assets are held in secure cold wallets and that user funds remain unaffected. BtcTurk has informed authorities and implemented additional security measures while conducting a detailed investigation. This incident marks the second major breach for BtcTurk, following a June 2024 hack that resulted in approximately $55 million in losses from unauthorized hot wallet withdrawals.

Block Data Reference

Attacker Addresses:

0x7D91D1eb…5d8b6E

This is classified as a Access Control Attacks . Compare similar hacks →

Incident Report

Protocol / Project BtcTurk
Date of Incident
Affected Chain(s) arbitrum avalanche base ethereum mantle optimism polygon
Attack Technique Private Key Compromised / Access Control
Classification Infrastructure / CeFi
Primary Source View Post-Mortem

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Exploit/Access control
Smart Contract Language Solidity
Official Website ayricaliklar.btcturk.com/
Protocol Twitter/X @btcturk
Team Anonymous
Source Code Unverified

Market Context at Time of Hack

Token Categories
BNB Chain Ecosystem
Protocol Links

What the Attacker Needed to Succeed

Understanding the prerequisites for this type of attack helps auditors identify protocols that are most at risk and helps developers build better defenses.

Technical Knowledge Operational-security tradecraft (phishing, malware, leaked seed phrases, or insider access) to obtain treasury signing authority
Capital Required Minimal capital - only enough to cover gas while draining the compromised accounts
On-Chain Access Valid signing authority over the compromised wallets / multisig signers, allowing direct transfer of funds or stake authorization
Target Reconnaissance Identification of BtcTurk 's high-value treasury accounts and the authority / multisig structure controlling them
Execution Speed Speed to drain the compromised accounts before the team detects the breach and revokes signing authority or freezes the assets
Obfuscation Plan A strategy to launder and move stolen funds - typically through mixers, cross-chain bridges, or decentralized DEX swaps to resist tracing

What Auditors Should Check

Could this have been caught in audit? Hard to catch — private key / OpSec failures are outside smart contract audit scope

If you're auditing a protocol with similar architecture to BtcTurk , these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (August 2025).

  • Verify all logic paths related to Private Key Compromised / Access Control are guarded by proper access controls and input validation - see the Access Control Attacks attack class for patterns
  • Review privileged functions (owner, admin, governance) for potential abuse vectors - centralization risks should be documented and bounded with timelocks or multi-sigs

Master these auditing techniques with hands-on labs and real exploit scenarios in the Smart Contract Hacking course.

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Related Attack Classes

The technique used in this hack maps to these vulnerability classes in our security curriculum:

See all Access Control Attacks examples →

Access Control Attacks

Sources & References

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