Parliamentary commission passes bill on crypto assets

ANKARA

The Turkish parliament’s planning and budget commission has approved a bill aimed at regulating the crypto assets sector in the country.

The draft law, which requires crypto asset service providers to obtain licenses from the Capital Markets Board, includes the definitions of crypto assets.

According to a report submitted to the commission, the total value of crypto assets stored at 10 crypto exchanges is $7 billion. Data collected from crypto service providers show that there are some 20 million investors in those platforms.

The bill is expected to help Türkiye to be removed from the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) gray list.

At the initial stage between, 10 to 20 exchanges are expected to receive permission from the authorities, according to the report.

The most popular crypto assets in Türkiye are Bitcoin, Ethereum and Tether, accounting for 29.6 percent of all crypto assets held by Turkish investors, the report found.

The top three exchanges hold some $5 billion of the total $7 billion crypto assets, according to the report.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported that Türkiye is poised to be removed from the FATF’s gray list as early as next month.

An on-site visit by the Paris-based task force earlier this month noted significant progress, people familiar with the matter told the news service.

That means Türkiye could come off the list of jurisdictions under increased monitoring on the final day of the FATF plenary in Singapore on June 28, the people said, adding that no final decisions have been made.