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Bitcoin is very popular in Turkey, compared to neighbouring countries
 Turkey is a striking case, no other Middle Eastern country uses as much crypto as Turkey 21.Sep.20 10:55 AM By Abigail Richards Photo toinnov.com |
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Chainalysis has published a report in which they map the world of cryptocurrency. Literally. In the report they compare different regions to find out how popular cryptocurrency is. Turkey is a striking case, no other Middle Eastern country uses as much crypto as Turkey. Turkey ranks 29th out of 154 countries on the Chainalysis Global Crypto Adoption Index, and number one in the Middle East. This is in the 2020 Geography of Cryptocurrency Report (PDF) published this week. The country has been at the forefront of the acceptance of cryptocurrency for a long time, and the economic uncertainty in Turkey plays a role in the rising popularity, concludes Chainalysis. The report says: 'the Turkish lira has been extremely volatile in recent years, which has led some to shift part of their savings to cryptocurrency.’ Currently there are no rules for cryptocurrency in Turkey, but the country's Capital Markets Board (CMB) is developing a regulatory framework. The report shows that most transactions from the Middle East on the major stock exchanges Binance, Huobi and Bitfinex come from Turkish users. This may not come as a surprise, but the lira/BTC trading couple is not used anywhere else than on the Turkish Stock Exchange Btturk. Chainalysis expects most users to buy bitcoin on BTCTurk, then send it to other larger platforms such as Binance. Here there is more liquidity and more trade volume than at local exchanges. The report also showed that the already existing acceptance of mobile fintech and payment platforms in Turkey is higher than elsewhere in the region and that an incoming regulatory framework is likely to lead to higher acceptance of crypto currency. Even before Covid-19 hit the Turkish economy hard, the country was struggling. The economy went into recession at the end of 2018. Foreign debt and unemployment have long been high. The lira is also very weak. This year, the record was at its lowest, with a 20% drop, making it the world's second weakest currency by 2020, according to Reuters. | |
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