Turkey’s Financial Intelligence Unit Launches Investigation Into FTX Collapse

November 16, 2022 Bitcoin.com

Turkey’s financial authority investigates FTX’s collapse

November 14, 2022 Coin Telegraph

The Turkish regulator joined the United States and the Bahamas in investigating the exchange's fall.

Turkey’s Financial Crimes Investigation Agency is the latest authority to announce investigations into crypto exchange FTX after its collapse and bankruptcy filing on Nov.11.

Along with FTX, the agency will look into people and institutions related to the platform — including banks, electronic money institutions and crypto-asset providers — according to an official statement from Nov. 14. The regulator also noted that it had been monitoring FTX’s activities in accordance with the country’s Anti-Money Laundering laws.

FTX Turkey, FTX’s regional subsidiary, provided a Google Form for users seeking to receive their funds, without specifying a delivery date. On its website and Twitter account, a note asked users to share their International Bank Account Number address to proceed with the refund process.

Turkey is one of the most relevant emerging markets for the crypto industry, with nearly 8 million people in the country engaged with cryptocurrencies, according to figures from the local crypto exchange Paribu.

Roughly 130 companies in FTX Group — including FTX Trading, FTX US, under West Realm Shires Services, and Alameda Research — started proceedings to file for bankruptcy in the United States on Nov. 11 following the exchange’s dramatic collapse during the previous days.

In addition to Turkey, the United States and the Bahamas announced investigations into the bankrupt crypto exchange during the past week. In the U.S., the Securities Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice are looking into the matter.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Manhattan district of New York has also begun to investigate the circumstances leading up to the exchange’s fall. The Department of Financial Protection and Innovation in the state of California additionally announced its own investigation regarding the “apparent failure”.

In the Bahamas, an investigation of possible criminal misconduct is underway by financial investigators and securities regulators.

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Turkey taps blockchain for e-Human project, President Erdoğan announced

October 19, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan shared new details about the country’s e-Human project powered by blockchain.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan unveiled new details about the e-Human project powered by blockchain ahead of Turkey’s national blockchain summit.

Cointelegraph Turkey reported the e-Human project will be based on blockchain tech to keep all services, data and capabilities used by the system under protection.

While it has a sci-fi name, Turkey’s e-Human project acts as a digital service point where Turkish Presidency can share data related to its services and tools related to career, remote education, talent acquisition.

Students, new graduates and public employees can access job and internship opportunities in the public and private sectors, certified training for public employees, career fairs held in Turkey, events and educational content from the e-Human portal. The project aims to increase employability and support the development of the citizens.

Previously, Turkey’s national car company TOGG announced a strategic partnership with Avalanche blockchain’s developer Ava Labs to develop safe and fast mobility services with smart contracts.

Turkey was known as a crypto-friendly country until President Erdoğan launched an all-out war against the use of cryptocurrencies. The country put a ban on crypto payments in local goods and services in April 2021.

While the government took an anti-crypto stance, it continued to explore the ecosystem while building several blockchain projects of its own. The country even announced its National Blockchain Infrastructure plans —however, the pandemic might have caused a stall since no updates were made after the initial announcement.

The crypto adoption of the Turkish population draws a stark contrast with the government’s perspective. The country is home to several global events, such as Istanbul Blockchain Week and Blockchain Economy Istanbul. The local developer ecosystem is also working hard to bring the next DevCon, a major event for the Ethereum developer community, to İstanbul.

Recent Chainalysis data showed that Turkey was among one of the fastest-growing crypto markets. Chainalysis’ 2022 Global Cryptocurrency Adoption Index revealed that Turkey is in the top 20 countries in terms of crypto adoption.

Turkey works hard to make İstanbul home to global blockchain hype

October 10, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

The Turkish crypto and blockchain ecosystem is working hard to build during the bear market, according to local experts.

The people of the Turkish crypto ecosystem are very eager to apply the age-old words of wisdom, “The bear market is an opportunity to build,” to make İstanbul -the business hub of Turkey- home to the global hype surrounding Ethereum.

Turkey is one of the most active countries in crypto and blockchain, and its interest extends beyond market movements. Along with a considerable base of crypto investors, the local community consists of university clubs, Web3 startups, blockchain developers and academics. The country has hosted significant events like ETHIstanbul, Blockchain Economy Istanbul and Istanbul Blockchain Week and aims to achieve more.

The high inflation rate is a key driver behind Turkey’s growing interest in crypto assets, according to economist Erkan Öz:

“Many people [in Turkey] think that they can no longer buy a car or a house within the classical financial system. For this reason, interest in crypto assets is increasing daily.”

However, he noted that the crypto adoption is yet to be fully translated to blockchain startups or projects because there are no healthy regulations to meet the needs of the ecosystem. “Turkey should establish a legal infrastructure that will both protect investors and support blockchain and crypto assets as soon as possible,” Öz added.

The thriving local crypto ecosystem has a newfound ambition that unites the Bitcoin maximalists with “Shibarmy” troops —bringing the DevCon 7, the largest conference for the Ethereum ecosystem, to Istanbul. Supported by key local figures, the movement reached large masses in a short time.

Nowadays, if you look at the Twitter accounts of the names in the Turkish ecosystem, you will see the phrase #DevconIstanbul next to their names. The initiative is rooted in the digital world, but it didn’t take much to expand it into the physical reality—the last example being ETHIstanbul's After Merge Party.

Despite the fast-growing crypto adoption, Turkey lacks behind in terms of startups and developers, according to Turan Sert, author of two Turkish books about blockchain and decentralized finance (DeFi), respectively:

“We started late, but we are growing fast. The main reason for this is student clubs—the success of student clubs abroad and their resonance in Turkey.”

Sert explains that the success of crypto and blockchain-focused student clubs in foreign events had great repercussions and contributed to the increase in the number of developers in Turkey.

- Why #DevCon 7 should be in Istanbul?
+ The way to the heart is through the stomach #DevConIstanbul #Ethereum pic.twitter.com/ycuSaZFlW1
— gem (@cemdx) September 27, 2022

DevCon is set to held in Bogota this year between Oct. 11-14 after several delays. Tansel Kaya, an academic at Kadir Has University and the CEO of Mindstone, emphasizes the importance of bringing the event to Turkey for talented students who do not have the opportunity to attend such events.

“We want our software developers and student communities in Turkey to meet the names in DevCon events, but it is not always easy to go abroad,” Kaya explains, adding: “If we can't go out, we have to bring them here.”

Middle East and North Africa are fastest-growing crypto markets: Data

October 5, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

From institutional crypto usage in the United Arab Emirates to remittance payments in the Egyptian market, the last year revealed major growth for crypto in the MENA region.

Emerging markets continue to forge their way into the crypto scene finding a plethora of use cases, especially in the combined Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

A new report from Chainalysis reveals that the crypto market in the MENA region is the fastest growing in the world. Transaction volume in the MENA region reveals users received $566 billion in crypto in the time frame of July 2021 to June 2022. This is 48% more than the previous year.

MENA is followed by Latin America and North America with a growth of 40% and 36% respectively.

This region is made up of approximately 22 countries which include emerging markets such as Morocco, Egypt and Turkey. In these countries, the usage of cryptocurrencies finds practical use cases in savings preservation and remittance payments.

In countries such as Turkey and Egypt, which have both faced major devaluation of their local fiat currencies, crypto usage for savings preservation and remittances is especially dominant.

Within the timeframe of the report, Egypt’s tripled transaction volumes can be accredited to local economic volatility. It has a year-over-year growth of 221.7% in crypto transaction volume. Turkey is the largest crypto market in the region with $192 billion in crypto received within the reporting period.

The wealthier countries of the MENA region, such as the Gulf nation of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) which is home to the crypto haven of Dubai, have also been contributors to the local crypto scene though in a different capacity.

According to the report both Saudi Arabia and the UAE made it into the region’s top five countries in terms of received crypto value.

When it comes to these Gulf nations, however, crypto can be seen more in large institutional usage rather than person-to-person payments like remittances.

Major crypto companies like Binance have received approval to set up operations in the UAE’s Abu Dhabi and Dubai, along with the neighboring country Bahrain.

A local partnership with Bianance Pay in the UAE has even allowed local entrepreneurs can set up businesses using crypto.

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