Crypto standardization. On the banks of the Bosphorus, straddling Europe and Asia, the Türkiye establishes itself as one of the world leaders inadoption cryptocurrency. The country’s 85 million inhabitants use it more and more according to Chain Analysiswhich ranks the republic in 12th rank of his Global Crypto Adoption Index. This growing interest in Bitcoin & Co is mainly rooted in the complicated economic situation that the country has been going through for several years and which has recently worsened with theinflation important which affects the country and which melts the value of the national currency, the Turkish lira.
It is in this unfavorable context that the government of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan tries to normalize the situation in the country in relation to international standards for the fight against whitening money and financing of terrorism. Turkey would like to get out of the gray list of FATF and for this, the last pitfall is precisely the regulation of the cryptocurrency sector. Direction Ankara to take stock.
Turkey plans to leave the FATF gray list…
Before looking at the specific case of Türkiyeit is appropriate to briefly recall what the FATF and what it is used for. The financial action group (FATF) was created during the G7 summit in 1989 and its main mission is to “promote and develop national and international policies to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT)”. Historically based in Paris, the organization publishes three times a year a black list and a gray list of countries whose measures to combat these two scourges are considered too weak. For example, we find North Korea, Iran and Burma on the black list while 25 nations appear on the gray list, including Türkiye which interests us today.
In order to determine if a national policy is sufficient in the fight against AML/CFT, the FATF offers a list of 40 criteria that a country must respect and it turns out that Turkey is on the verge of achieving it with no less than 39 points validated by international authorities. The Minister of Finance, Mehmet Şimşekdeclared last Tuesday during the Finance Committee, that the last step concerned the cryptocurrency sector.
“Regarding technical compliance, the only work in progress concerns cryptoassets. Moreover, the necessary efforts in this area have reached the final phase. »
Mehmet Şimşek, Minister of Finance of Turkey – Source: Coindesk
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…but it must regulate the cryptocurrency sector to achieve this
A little earlier last week, this same minister announced working on the regulatory definition of these famous digital assets, but also on their taxation and finally on the platforms who provide them to the population. In doing so, the country hopes to be able to meet the global standards of the FATF and finally get out of the gray list, which is a bit of a stain, considering this large country that is Turkey, a candidate for the EU for years.
But because things are never as simple as one might think, the minister Mehmet Şimşek added a very diplomatic little sentence towards Paris:
“We will submit a proposed law on cryptoassets to parliament as soon as possible. After that, there will be no reason for Turkey to remain on this gray list. At least, if there are no other political considerations. »
Mehmet Şimşek, Minister of Finance of Turkey – Source: Coindesk
These last words echo Turkey’s particular situation on the international political scene. Indeed, it is one of the countries which continue to speak with the Russia of Putin while the rest of the Western world has cut ties with Moscow. Likewise, by its particular geographical and strategic position, Erdogan’s country is both part of what is now called the Global South but the country also aspires to make its voice heard among the great nations of the G7. Not an easy balancing act.
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