Note that relations with cryptocurrencies in Turkey have been quite strained in 2021. In particular, in the spring it became known about trading platforms that were shut down in the country.

In September, the president announced that the government was waging a war on cryptocurrencies. This is a rather strange decision, given the country’s national currency, which has depreciated sharply in recent times. At the same time, crypto allows you to make money – sometimes on a large scale.

Graph of the lira against the dollar over the year

However, the situation is now changing for the better. We tell you more about it.

Should blockchain be separated from cryptocurrencies

After Turkish President Recep Erdogan confirmed that a cryptocurrency law was in the pipeline, the Turkish parliament hosted a delegation of local digital asset experts to better understand the intricacies of the industry. Karatay, who later shared her impressions of the meeting in an interview with the Cointelegraph news outlet, was one of the group’s participants.

According to Karatay, blockchain itself does not require a comprehensive legal assessment, as without cryptocurrency it is just a database. Here is the expert’s rejoinder, in which she shares her perspective on what is happening.

All the opportunities created by this industry, as well as all the risks, manifest themselves in areas where cryptocurrency and blockchain go hand in hand.

So Elchin believes that the idea of trying to develop blockchain without a link to cryptocurrencies is doomed to failure. In addition, digital assets themselves are a source of risk because of their volatility and the prospect of theft. However, that is the key to the pace of niche development we are seeing today.

Lawyer Elchin Karatay

She added that when governments try to separate the concept of blockchain from cryptocurrencies, it leads to either a complete ban on digital assets or a legalised and “lightweight” version of them that has not had a drop of decentralisation. In this case, balance is paramount when it comes to creating a regulatory framework. The expert continues.

If you focus only on eliminating industry-specific risks in regulatory efforts, you will also eliminate any potential benefits and opportunities that the same industry would otherwise offer.

Accordingly, it is worthwhile for the authorities to allow citizens to get in touch with the risk and try to limit it, while still retaining the opportunity to make money. Otherwise - that is, if cryptocurrencies are banned - the situation will end up going nowhere. And that includes the authorities, which would lose an additional source for taxation.

Bitcoin to Turkish Lira exchange rate

Speaking of risks. One of the biggest risks to the crypto industry remains hacking activity. The largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance draws attention to this. The day before it became known that it is creating an insurance fund of one billion dollars to protect the trading platform from potential hacks. In this way, the platform is showing that it will be able to handle even major problems should they arise.

Obviously, such an initiative will attract users who will feel protected. It should be noted that although Binance is the largest trading exchange in terms of volume of transactions on regular spot (i.e. buying coins at their market prices) and with futures, the growth rate of this indicator lags behind other trading platforms.

In particular, since the first of January 2020, billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX exchange has been the leader in terms of trading volume growth. In this case, Binance is in second place, but lagging behind quite noticeably.

Growth of trading volumes on cryptocurrency exchanges


We believe that this position of the expert is consistent with reality. While crypto offers risks in the form of volatility and the ability to plummet in value, it also offers opportunities for developers and users of various platforms around the world. So there is no point in banning the niche - it should at best be carefully regulated.