Turkey’s Central Bank: Crypto Regulation Will Come In Two Weeks

Turkey’s central bank noted that crypto regulations could come faster than anticipated or in two weeks’ time since it was quite a rough week for the crypto traders in the country as we reported in our previous cryptocurrency news.

Turkey’s central bank governor noted that the government has no intention of banning crypto and said that regulations will come in about two weeks’ time. The full-fledged regulations mean that the government is not working on a ban. Sahap Kavaioglu, the governor, said:

“You can’t resolve anything simply by banning crypto, and we have no intention of doing so.”

While the governor didn’t actually specify what the forthcoming regulation will entail, he hinted that it will likely clarify the legal definition of crypto and how the institutions will handle and store it. He also said that the implementations are necessary to address the high amount of funds that are leaving the country in crypto and said that he doesn’t have any reliable figures to support that claim but added that the government can’t know if the funds leaving will ever find the way back in Turkey.

Beste Nax Sulu, who is a research director at exchange Icrypex, said that the government wants to clarify in which jurisdiction virtual currency is stored with the key question being will it remain in turkey or not. Governments often prevent wealth from leaving their countries in order to protect their economies and as we can see now, Turkey is kind of having a hard time.

The bank’s governor said that his decision to ban payment processors from dealing with crypto was much needed in order to restore government oversight over payments networks. Payment Processors have a weak infrastructure and unlike banks, they will be heavily affected by the ban. Kavacioglu’s statement came at a critical time for the crypto industry in Turkey. This week, two crypto exchanges Vebitcoin and Thodex ceased trading and prevented customers from withdrawing their money.  Regulations could protect the users from events like this as the governor mentioned:

“Just as the stock exchange market is protected against slander or manipulative headlines, the crypto industry could also benefit from such protection.”

The shutdown should not distract the government from having a rational approach, as the legal counsel Mehmet Turkarslan said:

 “Crypto regulation, done right, could significantly contribute to the country’s economy.”