Turkey plans to craft crypto framework in 2024

The Presidential Annual Programm for 2024, published on Oct. 25 in Turkey’s Official Gazette, sets an aim to finalize the crypto regulations in the country within the following year.

Article 400.5 of the almost 500-page document reveals the planned studies to define crypto assets, which might be properly taxed afterward. The crypto asset providers, i.e., crypto exchanges, will also be given their legal definition. However, the document contains no other details on the future regulations.

In September 2023, the former CEO of Turkish crypto exchange Thodex, Faruk Fatih Özer, was sentenced to 11,196 years in prison by a Turkish court. One of the largest trading platforms in the country, Thodex, abruptly imploded in 2021.

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According to a 2022 study, Turkey was the second nation in the world in terms of crypto-related search requests, with 5.5% of the population making them. The country saw an elevenfold rise in crypto use in 2021 amid the ongoing inflation crisis of the local currency, lira.

In December 2022, the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey completed the first trial of the digital lira and has signaled plans to continue testing throughout 2023. And while the government has still made no commitment to the ultimate digitalization of the country’s currency, its president, Recep Erdogan, has repeatedly supported the digital lira project.