As Turkey anticipates new crypto sector legislation, major banking institutions in the country are taking steps to solidify their positions in the digital asset space. Despite uncertainties surrounding the forthcoming laws, institutional adoption of crypto is on the rise in Turkey, with two of the country’s largest banking groups making recent announcements related to their crypto endeavors.
Akbank’s investment arm disclosed on Monday its acquisition of the local crypto firm Stablex, indicating its aspirations to play a significant role in the digital asset arena, as reported by CoinDesk Turkey.
Following this move, Garanti BBVA, another major Turkish bank, introduced its own digital wallet as a mobile app, as stated in the same report. Notably, Garanti BBVA’s app includes a cold wallet function, allowing users to transact with Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and various stablecoins.
Turkey ranks highly in crypto adoption
Despite the government’s efforts to slow down crypto adoption, Turkey has consistently ranked among the top 20 countries in Chainalysis’ Global Crypto Adoption Index for 2023.
Surprisingly, and in the face of regulatory challenges, the number of crypto investors in Turkey is still growing, driven in part by concerns about inflation in the country’s fiat currency, the lira. According to a survey conducted by major crypto exchange KuCoin earlier this year, over half of the Turkish population now participates in some form of the crypto market.
In 2021, Turkey’s central bank banned the use of crypto for payments, but the authorities have refrained from implementing a total ban on all uses of digital assets. The Turkish central bank’s “Regulation on the Disuse of Cryptoassets in Payments” specifies that crypto is “neither subject to any regulation and supervision mechanisms nor a central regulatory authority.”
