Crypto Regulation in Turkey: A Pending Announcement

Crypto investors are eagerly awaiting the details of Turkey’s cryptocurrency regulation. However, there has not been any substantial draft shared with the public for years. In the past, a draft that was later claimed to be false had circulated, containing troubling details.

Cryptocurrency Regulation

Countries around the world are looking for ways to legally ground cryptocurrencies. Turkey has been working on this for a long time, but the legal regulations, which were said to be very close at the end of 2021, were forgotten with the onset of the bear market.

However, Tansel Kaya shared a few minutes ago from account X that, according to his sources, the law will emerge at the beginning of next year.

“A BTC ETF could come out around January 10. The legal regulation in Turkey will roughly be around this period. All risks related to BTC are disappearing.

In the new regulation, access to foreign exchanges will be restricted. The local branches of the exchanges will continue to operate. What I’m curious about is that many exchanges get their order books from exchanges abroad. How they will solve this is a big question. Most likely, they will allow exchanges to import crypto. Individuals won’t be able to, but local exchanges will.”

Impact on Investors

Previously, Efe Bulduk had stated that the details of this law would emerge in the last quarter, but there has been no announced law yet. It is unclear how much the regulation preparations, which are part of the government’s work plan for 2024 and expected to be announced in January, are related.

Turkey is pressured by two significant issues. One is the concern about capital outflow to foreign countries, and the other is combating money laundering. Many countries are trying to cut off local exchanges’ connections with foreign ones to prevent capital outflow, but this is not the solution. Indeed, due to the pressure applied to politicians, most regions have taken a step back.

Cutting off communication with global exchanges is not logical in the fight against money laundering because the US and others are not doing this. Instead, steps such as on-chain intelligence, data monitoring units, and tracking of KYC obligations should be taken, meaning exchanges should be regulated.

Both the US and Turkey are discussing crypto laws before the elections, but the possibility of these proposals not becoming law is strong, as they have the potential to cause significant voter loss for the ruling parties in both countries. The voting direction of millions of crypto investors could change depending on these strict restrictions. We clearly saw this in the South Korean elections, and nowadays, US presidential candidates are working to convince citizens of who is more crypto-friendly.

Finally, even if a law is announced in January, we are likely to see revisions based on the reactions it receives.