Fund prices reportedly surge over 3,000% through cross trades in thin stocks

In late August 2026, reports in Turkey said the prices of certain investment funds had risen by more than 3,000% in about eight months. The gains were linked to cross trades, in which buyers and sellers who appear to be connected trade shares with each other, in low-volume stocks on Borsa Istanbul.

Because the shares involved were thinly traded, relatively small transactions could move their prices sharply. Since the funds held these shares, their own unit prices climbed too. The pattern led to suspicions that prices were being artificially pushed up rather than reflecting real demand or company performance.

The reports mattered because they drew attention to how funds could be used to channel retail investors' money into inflated stocks. They added to concerns about market manipulation that regulators and prosecutors were already examining, and they became part of the background to the wider fund crisis, the investigations that followed and the later question of how much money would be returned to investors. The exact scale and the people involved were still being established at the time.