Turkey is aiming to finalize its encryption regulations in 2024, according to the Turkish President's Annual Plan for 2024, which was published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Turkey on October 25. The plan outlines the intention to conduct research to define crypto-assets, allowing for appropriate taxation. Additionally, the plan will provide a legal definition for cryptocurrency asset providers, including cryptocurrency exchanges. However, the document does not offer further specifics regarding these upcoming regulations.
In September 2023, Faruk Fatih Özer, the former CEO of the Turkish cryptocurrency exchange Thodex, was sentenced to 11,196 years in prison following the sudden collapse of the exchange in 2021. Turkey has shown a significant interest in cryptocurrencies, ranking as the second-highest country globally for crypto-related search requests, with 5.5% of the population seeking information on this topic, as reported in a 2022 study. Cryptocurrency adoption in Turkey surged 11-fold in 2021, largely due to the country's ongoing economic instability and high inflation in its local fiat currency, the Turkish lira.
Furthermore, the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey completed its first trial of the digital lira, the central bank's digital currency, in December 2022. The central bank plans to continue testing the digital lira in 2024. While Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has voiced support for the digital lira project, the government has not yet made a commitment to the eventual digitization of the country's currency.
