Turkey Curated

DeFi Intel Research Desk2026-07-14Asia

Is crypto legal in Turkey? (2026)

Partially — cryptocurrency is restricted in Turkey. Current status: Restricted — trading regulated, payments banned. Oversight sits with Capital Markets Board of Türkiye (SPK) / MASAK (AML). Full details — governing law, licensing, tax and dated enforcement history — follow below (last reviewed 2026-07-14).

Framework: Law No. 7518 — Capital Markets Law amendments (Official Gazette 2 July 2024); CMB Communiqués III-35/B.1 and III-35/B.2 (13 March 2025); MASAK AML rules in force 25 February 2025.

Law No. 7518, published in Official Gazette No. 32590 on 2 July 2024, gave Türkiye its first statutory crypto framework by inserting crypto-asset provisions (notably Article 35/B) into Capital Markets Law No. 6362. Crypto-asset service providers (CASPs) — trading platforms, custodians and wallet-service providers — now require establishment approval and operating authorization from the Capital Markets Board (CMB/SPK), which also gained rulemaking power over their shareholders, management, capital and asset-listing standards. Operating without authorization is a criminal offence. The Central Bank's April 2021 regulation banning the use of cryptoassets in payments remains fully in force, so the regime legalises investment and trading while keeping crypto out of the payments system.

The CMB completed the rulebook on 13 March 2025 with two communiqués (Official Gazette No. 32840). Communiqué III-35/B.1 governs establishment and licensing; Communiqué III-35/B.2 sets operating principles and capital adequacy — a minimum paid-in capital of ₺150 million for trading platforms and ₺500 million for custodians, plus an equity top-up for custodians of 1.5% of client assets above ₺1 billion. Providers had to meet the capital thresholds on application and comply with most operating provisions by 30 June 2025. The package also brought asset-listing procedures, customer-asset segregation, independent audits, advertising restrictions and reverse-solicitation limits on foreign platforms marketing to Turkish residents.

The market is in a licensing transition. The CMB's public "in operation" list — a transitional disclosure of firms that declared they will continue operating, not a final register — counted 58 providers, which must obtain full authorization certificates by 30 June 2026; in March 2026 the CMB extended certain deadlines on custody agreements and authorization paperwork. Enforcement against unauthorized foreign platforms has already begun: on 3 July 2025 the CMB announced access blocks and legal action against 46 websites offering unlicensed crypto services to Turkish users, including the decentralized exchange PancakeSwap — the first DEX blocked in Türkiye.

On the AML side, amendments published on 25 December 2024 and effective 25 February 2025 put Türkiye's Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK) rules in line with FATF standards: identity verification for transactions above ₺15,000 (≈$425), a mandatory transfer note of at least 20 characters, a 48-hour hold on withdrawals where originator/beneficiary data is incomplete, and a 72-hour hold on first withdrawals from new accounts. In mid-2025 the Finance Ministry announced further measures aimed at fraud and illegal-betting flows — stablecoin transfer caps of about $3,000 per day and $50,000 per month (doubled for platforms fully implementing the travel rule) and expanded MASAK account-freezing powers; the implementing details of the caps are pending verification by DeFi Intel.

Tax treatment

There is still no crypto-specific capital-gains tax for individuals: after long deliberation the government said in late 2024 it had no plan to tax crypto gains, keeping only a possible transaction levy under study. That changed shape in 2026 — on 2 March 2026 the ruling AK Party introduced an omnibus bill proposing a 10% withholding tax on gains realised through licensed platforms (with presidential power to set the rate between 0% and 20%) plus a 0.03% transaction levy on service providers. After public pushback, the crypto articles were pulled from the bill on 26 March 2026; the 0.03% levy had cleared the Planning and Budget Committee but had not been enacted into law as of this review. Until new legislation passes, trading gains of individual investors remain untaxed in the general case, while commercial-scale activity falls under ordinary income-tax rules.

• Capital-gains rate (general): 0% (no specific crypto CGT; 10% withholding proposal withdrawn March 2026)
• Holding-period rule: N/A

Travel rule applicability

Status: yes — in force since 25 February 2025. MASAK's FATF-aligned rules require Turkish CASPs to collect and transmit originator and beneficiary information, verify sender identity for transfers of ₺15,000 and above, and apply enhanced due diligence to high-risk transactions. Where required transfer data is missing, platforms must hold withdrawals for 48 hours (72 hours for a new account's first withdrawal), and every transfer needs a descriptive note of at least 20 characters.

Notable enforcement actions

• 2021–2023. Thodex collapse — the exchange shut in April 2021 with ~390,000 victims and ≈$2B in losses; founder Faruk Fatih Özer was sentenced to 11,196 years in September 2023. He was found dead in his cell at Tekirdağ high-security prison on 1 November 2025.
• Jun 2024. BtcTurk hot-wallet breach — ≈$55M in unauthorized withdrawals; Binance froze $5.3M of the stolen funds.
• Jul 2025. CMB blocks access to 46 unauthorized crypto websites, including PancakeSwap, citing unlicensed service provision under the Capital Markets Law.
• Aug 2025. BtcTurk suffers a second hack (~$48M in suspicious outflows across Ethereum, Avalanche, Arbitrum, Base, Optimism, Mantle and Polygon) and halts withdrawals during the investigation.

Public licensed CASP list

The CMB publishes on its website a transitional list of CASPs "in operation" (58 firms at last count) alongside a list of entities in liquidation; firms on the operating list must convert to full authorization certificates by 30 June 2026. DeFi Intel will mirror the final authorization register once the CMB begins issuing licences at the end of the transition.

Comparison to neighbours

Compare Turkey crypto regulation with three geographically adjacent jurisdictions:

Doing business in Turkey — practical notes

Crypto cannot be used for payments (Central Bank regulation, April 2021). Serving Turkish residents requires CMB authorization — platforms need ₺150M paid-in capital and custodians ₺500M, with customer-asset segregation, independent audits and the operating standards of the March 2025 communiqués; reverse-solicitation rules mean foreign platforms actively marketing to Turkish users risk access blocks, as the July 2025 action against 46 sites showed. MASAK obligations (₺15,000 ID threshold, travel-rule data, transfer notes, withdrawal holds) apply operationally. BtcTurk and Paribu are among the dominant local exchanges; both the 2024 and 2025 BtcTurk breaches underline that custody and hot-wallet risk, not legal status, is the sector's weak point.

Methodology and sources

This profile was researched and updated by DeFi Intel's research desk on 2026-07-14 from the primary and secondary sources listed below. Claims that could not be verified against a source are omitted or marked pending — we do not republish unverified third-party datasets. Submit corrections and primary-source links to research@defi-intel.com.

Sources

• CryptoSlate — Law No. 7518 Capital Markets Law crypto amendments (July 2024)
• Esin Attorney Partnership — CMB Communiqués III-35/B.1 and III-35/B.2 (13 March 2025)
• Mondaq — CASP capital adequacy: ₺150M platforms / ₺500M custodians
• Legal 500 — Türkiye blockchain and crypto assets: 58 firms on transitional operating list; 30 June 2026 deadline
• Notabene — Türkiye travel-rule guidelines in effect 25 February 2025
• 21 Analytics — Türkiye travel-rule and MASAK AML requirements
• Yahoo Finance — Türkiye plans stablecoin transfer caps and MASAK freezing powers (2025)
• CoinDesk — ruling party unveils 10% crypto income-tax proposal (2 March 2026)
• PA Turkey — crypto tax articles withdrawn from omnibus bill (26 March 2026)
• Cointelegraph — CMB blocks PancakeSwap and 45 other sites (July 2025)
• Cryptonews — Thodex founder Özer found dead in prison (1 November 2025)
• Halborn — the BtcTurk hack explained (August 2025)
• CoinDesk — BtcTurk $48M suspicious outflows (14 August 2025)