The Turkish lira became the top crypto trading pair on Binance in September 2023
The Turkish lira became the most dominant fiat trading pair on Binance in September, according to crypto exchange research.
As of early September, the lira was the fourth largest crypto market after the United States, India and the United Kingdom, but accounted for 75 percent of all fiat volume.
The boom in the lira trading pair can be linked to the recent influx of crypto investors into the Turkish market. 27% of Binance research participants started their journey as crypto investors in the last year, and 8% of them joined in the last six months.
Most respondents hold up to $175 (5,000 lira) in cryptocurrencies and prefer to invest more in real estate. As seen below, the profitability factor is a big reason for Turkey's interest in crypto. Ease of monitoring, no minimum threshold and low transaction costs remain some of the popular drivers for new investors. The inherent risks associated with crypto contribute to the reluctance of many Turkish investors.
In the last three years, crypto adoption in Turkey has increased from 16% to 40%, and the country is ranked 12th in Chainalysis' Global Crypto Adoption Index 2023. Turkey also received humanitarian aid in crypto during the 2023 earthquake.
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While crypto adoption in Turkey shows no signs of slowing down, the country is said to be developing new regulations to regulate crypto assets in an effort to convince the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to remove it from its “grey list”.
When the FFF placed Turkey on the gray list in 2021, Turkish Finance Minister Mehmet Şemsek explained that Turkey complies with all but one of the 40 criteria set by the regulator.
Şimşek mentioned a plan to submit a crypto-assets law to parliament to get off the gray list, but did not specify legal changes.
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