The Turkish lawmakers have given their approval to the cryptocurrency legislation proposed by the leader of the ruling party, Abdullah Güler. Turkey’s Crypto Bill, as initially reported by crypto.news Türkiye, stipulates penalties ranging from US$182,600 in fines to up to five years in jail for any infractions.
The legislation has been forwarded to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for his consent. Should his approval be granted, the ruling will be made available in the Official Gazette by the conclusion of the week, thereby making Turkey’s Crypto Bill operational.
Based on the new crypto regulations, all crypto trading companies who wish to formally establish their operations within the country are bound to secure authorization from Turkey’s Capital Markets Authority. Some crypto trading platforms are said to be running their business without a license, and such platforms may now face imprisonment for a term of 3 to 5 years.
Crypto service providers will also have to put into place and report actions like confiscations and other legal measures. Moreover, crypto platforms need to make sure that transactions involving customer funds — including both deposits and withdrawals — are available and can be tracked by legal entities.
Other taxes, even though not mentioned in the law, include a tax of 0.04% for crypto investments can be proposed while the specifics of its implementation and timely schedule have not been clarified.
Since the beginning of 2021, the Turkish authorities started studying the issue of possible legalization of cryptocurrencies, after Turkey was included in the list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) ‘grey list’. This status was obtained due to the Turkish’s failure to sufficiently oversee its banking, real estate, and other sectors vulnerable to money laundering operations.
In November 2023 the Minister of Treasury and Finance in Turkey, Mehmet Şimşek stated that the country was close to passing laws on crypto-related activities. Speaking to the country’s planning and budget committee, he said that Turkey had met 39 out of 40 academic criteria set by the FATF and was almost there.
In early 2024, Şimşek pointed out that fresh legislation will address the potential negative consequences of trading cryptocurrencies and safeguard consumers. Some of these regulations’ points are said to include legal definitions of essential terms relating to crypto assets, including ‘crypto assets’, ‘crypto wallets’, and ‘crypto asset service providers.”