Turkish regulators rushing to deliver crypto regulations

Turkish regulators rushing to deliver crypto regulations

Written by
Updated on Mar 11, 2020
Reading time 2 minutes
  • Turkey recently started making headlines due to its citizens' increased interest in owning and using cryptocurrencies.
  • Due to the lack of regulations that would provide rules, guidance, and taxation regarding crypto, the country's regulator is doubling its efforts to come up with a working legal framework.
  • Meanwhile, the country's interest in crypto also attracted Binance, which launched another fiat-to-crypto subsidiary that uses Turkish Lira.

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The world once again seems to be entering into a race, and this time, it is all about cryptocurrencies. After reports of China and Sweden developing their own CBDCs, Facebook’s announcement of Libra, and numerous countries’ efforts to catch up — it seems that Turkey is also joining the game.

According to a recent announcement from the
country’s regulatory group, Capital Markets Board (CMB), it seems that their
goal for 2020 is to try and deliver cryptocurrency regulations due to increased
interest. The country has started seeing a massive use of crypto recently, which
was further confirmed by a survey conducted by a Germany-based data firm,
Statista.

According to the survey, around one in five
Turks have admitted that they own — or that they used to own — digital coins.

However, despite the increased interest in cryptocurrencies
during recent years, the country still lacks a regulatory framework. Such a
development was concerning for the country’s authorities, which turned to CMB
with requests to come up with regulations for the industry, according to the
local media outlet,
Hürriyet.

Meanwhile, the CMB has its own concerns, which
mostly revolve around malicious actors within the crypto industry.
Furthermore, the lack of any standing regulations makes it difficult to
introduce taxes on profits made from crypto trading.

According to sources familiar with the
situation, the CMB does not only plan to regulate cryptocurrencies themselves,
but also some crypto businesses, including exchanges. As for the blockchain
technology, it will be one of the main focuses of IFC (Istanbul Finance Center)
in 2020, according to Hürriyet.

Binance steps in to conquer the
Turkish market

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Turkey’s interest in cryptocurrencies has been
attracting the attention of entities around the world, including one of the
world’s largest crypto exchanges, Binance. The exchange recently launched a
fiat-to-crypto subsidiary for the country’s national currency, lira.

Binance’s efforts to enter and dominate the
Turkish crypto market did not stop there, however, as the exchange also partnered with Turkish payments firm, Papara.
The goal is to allow Turkey’s citizens to purchase a number of coins, including
BTC, ETH, XRP, and BNB with lira, directly.

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