Turkey’s new regulation of the AML legislation for the cryptocurrency market has been prepared to be approved in February 2025 to protect the country against financial crimes. The new rules exposed this week will put pressure on crypto service providers to report users who handle transactions above 15,000 Turkish lira or $425.
This social regulation approach is in line with international developments, including the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-assets (MiCA) regulation to stamp out the use of digital money in money laundering and financing acts of terrorism.
Strict User Identification Rules Begin February 25, 2025
Since February 25, 2025, Turkish cryptocurrency exchanges and related service providers must rigorously identify their clients. If details of a given sender cannot be ascertained, as stated above, the providers can halt the given transaction as a high-risk transaction. This may entail the suspension or even outright exclusion of business relations regarding the non-compliant users.
Cryptocurrency Companies Operating In Turkey Need To Obtain Capital Markets’ Board Licence.Turkish-based Crypto firms are also expected to have a Capital Markets Board license. Since the implementation of the regulation issued in July, the CMB has received 47 applications for the issuance of funds.
In addition, the Financial Crimes Investigation Board will forever continue supervising the investigation of financial crime in Turkey. On the same note, TUBITAK, the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey, will verify the technological systems of crypto firms.
Now occupying the 11th place globally in terms of usage of digital assets and not giving any detailed information to citizens about the legal regulation of this sphere, Turkey sees the rules as necessary for countering the abuse of the rapidly developing sector.
Due largely to its dominance in the purchase and sale of cryptocurrencies the country has been experiencing most of the changes that are being rolled out. While these measures aim to enhance consumer protection and financial security, industry experts have highlighted potential challenges:
Innovation vs. Compliance Costs: Small businesses could be disadvantaged by operating within the set parameters, which would slow down innovation development.Opportunities for International Firms: Some big global crypto companies might see the new framework as an entry point to Turkey.
Nevertheless, due to the restrictions of AML rules, cryptocurrency transactions were banned in Turkey since 2021. Buying and selling in cryptocurrency is legal. But, the adoption of virtual assets for settlement against domestic goods and service still remain limited.
The Istanbul stock exchange too is planning to levy a 0.03% capital gains tax on their sales to boost national revenues for Turkish governance. This aggregate is expected to support fiscal objectives since it is the least measurable to influence market development.
Turkey has justified the ordinances as being equivalent to the eu’s mi-ca approach but, in fact, it has stricter licensing and operation requirements. Accordingly, decentralisation of the United States’ supervision results in variants within its crypto market.
As for today the crypto regulation is also advancing in other countries that belong to the international community. As an example, Russia proposed a synced model of identification and blocking of illicit transactions together with a banning of mining in 10 territories from January 2023.
🇷🇺 Russia’s Central Bank is developing a new surveillance platform to combat illegal crypto OTC services and enhance financial security! #Crypto #Russiahttps://t.co/gSD4mDWDar
— Cryptonews.com (@cryptonews) December 25, 2024
Turkey came out with new, stricter measures for AML and the crypto market in Turkey interface this shift as a pivot; Turkey is at the leading edge of adopting regulation and the compliance trajectory in the region. As the agencies involved in the quest of their objectives to address the unlawful use of digital assets and to enhance the evolution of the crypto economy space, the rules will reconfigure the future landscapes of both local and foreign crypto companies.
Turkey, as 190 other countries in the global, has till February 2025 to address ill-optimized issues concerning cryptocurrencies and the global crypto-market will watch Turkey closely to see how the country walks the tight rope between innovation and enforcement in a market that is still evolving.
