Turkish Central Bank is going down due to instability and resultantly the value of the Turkish lira declines but the Turkish people seek boosted cryptocurrencies through google searches. Turkey can easily be regarded as the safe-haven for crypto.
A major trauma was caused in Turkish when the Turkish President, Recep Erdogan, put someone else in the place of the national bank’s Governor.
The incident occurred on 19th March, 2021, when the serving Governor was replaced by the Turkish Minister. The succeeding Governor is Sahap Kavcioglu, who is also a Senator of the governing political party. It was reported that the dismissal was done on the behest that the earlier Governor had raised inflation within the country.
However, upon the dismissal, the value of Turkish national currency declined at least 15%, which was the lowest ever. But for many Turkish, the incident was taken as an opportunity to join the crypto industry.
A person named Tilbe Yardim, a national of Turkey, immediately sought to use her funds by converting them into digital assets. She was asked to give a comment to CoinDesk where she told that the removal of the Governor has shocked the financial sector. The decision was not acceptable to the sector which made them angry. She also told that since 2019, there were three Governors removed by the President on the allegations of “unsound financial policies”.
The incident has caused instability within the Turkish national bank and resultantly the countrymen are turning towards crypto. It was noted by Google that loads of crypto searches are being made from Turkey after the removal of the central bank’s Governor. Most searches are looking for boosted crypto assets, suggested Google.
It was further pointed out by Google that usually the trend in Turkey is searches relating to “Gold”. However, it seems that the Turkish people have broken their barrier of convenience and are looking to invest in digital assets. Though there were searches for Gold too however in comparison with digital assets, gold searches were rather flat.
The other major reason is that the overall crypto industry is not regulated in Turkey. There is therefore no restriction in Turkey at all on anyone against buying, selling or even trading digital currencies. In fact, there is no regulatory framework regarding crypto is in place in the country. Neither any crypto trading platforms are required to obtain any licenses nor are they obliged to seek permissions from any authority.
Furthermore, the taxpayers are not required to disclose their crypto assets nor they are liable to pay any income on holding them.
Ismail Hakki Polat, Professor at Kadir Has University, has been teaching subjects regarding blockchain and crypto as well as technology and innovation. Polat was of the view that the crypto trend is setting up its roots in Turkey.
