Kemal Gökçay - 14 April 2022 - Comments

Crypto Currency Law in Turkey

Cryptocurrency is a digital element designed to work as an exchange tool, using cryptography, a branch of mathematics, to secure transactions. Cryptocurrencies are a kind of digital currency, alternative currency and virtual currency. Crypto assets, unlike centralized electronic money and central banking systems, are completely decentralized. The decentralization of each cryptocurrency comes from a blockchain (Blockchain), which acts as a common transaction database. All chains located in this block are connected to each other. For this reason, every transaction made on the blockchain must be verified and recorded in a controlled manner. Forcing the system to synchronize itself to work without errors is at the very beginning of the cornerstones. The philosophy of the emergence of crypto currencies is to create an alternative to the American Dollar, the largest and valid unit of capitalism. Contrary to the general opinion in our country, crypto currency is a set of entities that want to carry shopping value, rather than being a unit traded on different exchanges. The current regulation on crypto currency in Turkey is the regulation published by the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey dated April 16, 2021. Purpose and scope Article 1 – (1) the purpose of this regulation are not being used in payments crypto assets, crypto assets in the provision of payment services and electronic money issuing of electronic money and payment institutions are not being used directly or indirectly to the purchase of assets and the crypto, storage, transfer or export platforms or platforms that offer the service to mediate the transfer of funds to be made is to establish procedures and guidelines. This regulation, as seen above, stands as an obstacle to the fact that the ultimate goal of crypto currencies is the value of shopping. In fact, it is more in accordance with a prohibition than an regulation. The first paragraph of the third article of the regulation, which consists of six articles in total, is also important as the first legal definition made in Turkey for crypto currencies. Article 3 – (1) the implementation of this regulation in the crypto asset, distributed notebook technology or using technology similar to digital networks that are created and distributed over virtually, however, fiat money, bank money, electronic money, payment instruments, securities or other capital market instruments that do not qualify as intangible assets refers to. This regulation has also dealt a great blow to technological developments in Turkey. it is very sad that such a prohibitive text was included in the Turkish legal system 11 years later, without considering how we can turn the informal economy into a formal economy, no regulation has been made for 11 years about blockchain and crypto money, which has been on the agenda and has been a topic on the agenda since 2010. If the regulations, definitions and practices related to crypto money are increased, bans should be created in accordance with these actions. Bans created when there is nothing in the middle prevent development and change and damage the reputation of this technology in a country and world where crypto currency transactions, such as Turkey, are at very high volumes.