Turkish Finance Minister Reveals Plan For Cryptocurrency Law

Turkish Finance Minister, Mehmet ERADICATE, (photo: x @metemestimsek)

JAKARTA - Turkey's Minister of Finance, Mehmet Badminton, has revealed part of what is contained in the upcoming crypto regulation in Turkey. The Turkish government will legally define critical concepts in crypto, license trading platforms, and comply with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) standards.

In an interview on January 10 with Anadolu Agency, ERADICATIONORATED that the crypto framework for the Turkish market is now in the final stages of its development, with technical aspects of its implementation being evaluated.

The minister stressed the government's intention to reduce the risk of crypto trading for ordinary investors in accordance with international standards.

"Therefore, we are taking steps to reduce the risk of parties transacting with crypto assets in our country, similar to international practice. This is also within the scope of the FATF to get out of the gray list," said hakim Mariak.

The new guidelines will require crypto platforms to obtain licenses from Turkey's Capital Markets Board (CMB). They will also provide legal definitions for "crypto assets," "crypto asset service providers," "crypto asset security services," and "crypto asset buying and selling platforms."

They provide an example of the definition of crypto assets as: "[...] intangible assets that can be created and stored electronically using distributed ledger technology or similar technologies, spread across digital networks, and capable of expressing value or rights."

Badminton added that the regulation would not cover a special tax regime for virtual assets.

Turkish authorities have been considering regulations for their crypto market for some time, focusing on licensing and taxes to remove the country from the FATF's "gray list".

According to blockchain analytic firm Chainalysis, between July 2022 and June 2023, Turkey is ranked fourth globally in the volume of raw crypto transactions, with around $170 billion in activity, only behind the United States, India, and the United Kingdom.