Five days after the Turkish Parliament adopted a new crypto assets regulation bill, Binance global announced adjustments to its services in Turkey. Binance announcement titled “Updates to Binance’s services in Turkey under the new crypto regulations” stated that Binance.com will remain accessible to Turkey users however, the Turkish language will be turned off over the period of next three months.
Turkish crypto assets regulation
According to the new crypto assets regulation bill, crypto asset service providers must obtain a license from Capital Markets Board (SPK) in order to establish or start operating in the country. The law mandates that individuals and officials of legal entities found operating as crypto asset service providers without authorization will face imprisonment for three to five years and a judicial fine ranging from 5,000 to 10,000 days.
Any service provider who is found to Siphoning off money or crypto assets, will face jail time from 8 to 14 years and judicial fines up to 5,000 days and must compensate for damages. The country still lacks any kind of regulation regarding the taxation of crypto assets and the issue will be covered by a separate law or regulation in the coming times.
Scope of crypto in Turkish market
According to HedgewithCrypto, the adoption rate of crypto in Turkey has doubled in the past 3 years, from 16% or the population holding crypto to 40% making Turkey one of the countries with highest crypto adoption rate. An estimate says that every two out of five Turkish citizens hold crypto.
Data from CoinMarketCap shows that in the last 24 hours the trading volume on Binance TR is $201.2M. The internal trading data on Binance shows that in September 2023, Turkey’s Lira once ranked first among the entire exchange’s fiat trading pairs, accounting for a surprising 75%.
Chainanalysis published a report in March 2024, where it placed Turkey at 10th rank among the countries to have gained returns from cryptocurrencies in the year 2023. Turkey has gained an estimate of $0.95 B.
Source: Chainanalysis
What to expect?
The real reasons behind the step taken by Binance is still unclear however there are certain speculations pointing that Binance is planning to withdraw from the Turkish Market. The crypto regulations adopted by Turkey suggest the platforms that do not apply for SPK license to terminate their activities and make the decision to liquidate within three months.
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