Ethereum News Today: Major Cybersecurity Breach Hits BTCTurk, $48M Stolen in Hot Wallet Exploit

A major cybersecurity breach has been reported at Turkish cryptocurrency exchange BTCTurk, with an estimated $48 million stolen from its hot wallet. The attack, identified by Cyvers Alert, involved the transfer of assets across multiple blockchain networks, including Ethereum, Avalanche, Arbitrum, Base, Optimism, Mantle, and Polygon [1]. The initial signs of the breach included a series of suspicious withdrawals that triggered alerts from monitoring systems. The hacker has continued to extract new tokens at a high rate, indicating ongoing exploitation of the compromised wallet.

The stolen funds included a wide array of digital assets, such as ETH, SOL, and various L2 tokens. Following the initial withdrawal from Ethereum and Solana, the attacker also began siphoning BNB Chain assets and executing trades on PancakeSwap [2]. Notably, the hacker used MetaMask swaps to quickly consolidate assets into ETH, highlighting the efficiency of fast-moving transactions in crypto ecosystems. Despite the exchange suspending user deposits and withdrawals, the compromised wallet continued to transfer assets to the attacker’s addresses, suggesting full control of the hot wallet.

The funds were initially distributed across two Ethereum ecosystem wallets and one Solana wallet. The Solana wallet, active since June, showed unusual activity post-attack, including a transfer to an address labeled as “PNUT Whale.” It also received a diverse mix of tokens, including MELANIA, TRUMP, PYTH, WIF, PENGU, and PUMP, before being moved further [3]. The final known Solana address holds $6.09 million in assets, largely in stablecoins and highly liquid meme tokens.

The majority of the stolen assets, totaling over $34 million, were consolidated into two Ethereum-based wallets. The first contained more than $17.5 million in ETH and smaller amounts from top L2 chains, while the second held $16.8 million in ETH and niche tokens. The attacker is believed to be preparing for further value extraction through decentralized exchanges, given the lack of traceable mixing activity thus far [1].

The incident comes amid a recent rise in crypto exchange attacks since July 2025. Unlike previous breaches that often targeted smart contracts or decentralized projects, this case highlights the vulnerability of centralized hot wallets—a point of operational convenience but also a major security risk [2]. BTCTurk, which handles around $300 million in daily trading volume, has been criticized for its limited security features and low trust scores across many trading pairs.

Market reactions have been mixed, with BTC dropping to around $118,000 and ETH falling to $4,539.83 in the wake of the news. The aggressive swapping of tokens like OP into ETH also led to sharper declines in those assets. Analysts suggest that while the direct market impact appears limited, the incident will likely intensify discussions around regulatory and operational standards in the crypto space [3].

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Source:

[1] CoinMarketCap - [https://coinmarketcap.com/community/articles/689de5f88bd3b9499f4ce90c/](https://coinmarketcap.com/community/articles/689de5f88bd3b9499f4ce90c/)

[2] Coindesk - [https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2025/08/14/crypto-prices-quickly-slide-after-troubling-u-s-ppi-report](https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2025/08/14/crypto-prices-quickly-slide-after-troubling-u-s-ppi-report)

[3] Cointelegraph - [https://www.cointelegraph.com/news/monero-hijacked-for-100k-day](https://www.cointelegraph.com/news/monero-hijacked-for-100k-day)