Turkish Minister of Treasury and Finance Mehmet Şimşek has revealed some of what is contained in upcoming crypto regulations in Turkey. The government will legally define critical concepts in crypto, license trading platforms and comply with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) standards.

In a Jan. 10 interview with the Anadolu Agency, Şimşek confirmed that the crypto framework for the Turkish market is now in the final stages of its development, with the technical aspects of its implementation being assessed.

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The minister emphasized the government’s intention to reduce the risks of crypto trade for ordinary investors in compliance with international standards:

“Therefore, we are taking steps to reduce the risks of parties trading with crypto assets in our country, similar to international practices. This is also within the scope of FATF to get out of the gray list.” 

The new guidelines will oblige crypto platforms to obtain licenses from Turkey's Capital Markets Board (CMB). They will also give legal definitions to “crypto assets,” “crypto wallets,” “crypto asset service providers,” “crypto asset custody service,” and “crypto asset buying and selling platforms.” Şimşek has laid out the example of crypto assets’ definition: 

“[...] intangible assets that can be created and stored electronically using distributed ledger technology or a similar technology, distributed over digital networks, and capable of expressing value or rights.”

Şimşek added that the regulations will not capture the specific tax regime for virtual assets. 

Turkish authorities have been considering regulations for its crypto market for some time, with a focus on licensing and taxation to remove the country from FATF’s “grey list.” According to the blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis, between July 2022 and June 2023, Turkey was fourth globally in raw crypto transaction volumes, with approximately $170 billion in activity, just behind the United States, India and the United Kingdom.

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