The Financial Stability Board urged Türkiye to strengthen oversight of crypto-related financial risks, citing Chainalysis’ estimate of nearly $200 billion in annual transactions in 2025 as the country’s market expands.
Published Nov. 11, the FSB’s second peer review placed Türkiye among the world’s 20 largest crypto markets and ranked it as the largest in the Middle East and North Africa. The board cited The 2025 Geography of Crypto Report for the transaction estimate.
Turkish authorities reported more than 7.1 million crypto-asset accounts linked to 5.3 million entities. Of those accounts, 51% had a positive wallet balance. The FSB described the market as retail-led, with crypto-assets held mainly for speculation and stablecoins used to preserve value amid currency depreciation and inflation.
An official registry showed about $3 billion in crypto-asset holdings with local service providers in 2026, equal to roughly 0.3% of total banking-sector assets. The FSB cautioned that the registry does not include self-custodied holdings or assets held through providers outside the regulated reporting system, including firms established abroad.
Türkiye has introduced registration and licensing requirements for crypto-asset service providers and safeguards for separating custody. A central data platform is also in place, though the move from interim registration to full licensing is unfinished. The country bars crypto-assets from use in domestic payments.
The FSB identified the lack of a dedicated framework for stablecoin issuers as a key gap. It recommended rules covering redemption rights, stabilization arrangements and prudential safeguards. For foreign-issued, foreign-currency stablecoins distributed through domestic crypto-asset service providers, it called for expectations on stabilization, reserves and transparency.
The board also urged authorities to set specific risk indicators, combine on-chain and off-chain information, strengthen supervision and enforcement, and share more information with overseas regulators. Offshore trading remains beyond Türkiye’s regulatory perimeter, leaving supervisors with an incomplete view of activity. “The borderless character of these markets means that no jurisdiction can address the associated risks through domestic action alone,” the FSB said.
The review follows a 2025 FSB assessment that found Türkiye had a crypto-asset framework but no stablecoin framework. The latest review covers financial-stability issues; it does not assess consumer and investor protection, market integrity, or anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorist financing risks. The FSB set no deadline for defining risk indicators, and its recommendations are nonbinding.
