The Turkish government is set to introduce legislation granting its financial crime watchdog, Masak, the authority to freeze cryptocurrency accounts as part of a broader effort to combat money laundering and financial crime.
According to a Bloomberg report citing people familiar with the matter, the draft legislation would expand Masak’s Anti-Money Laundering (AML) mandate, enabling it to freeze both cryptocurrency and traditional bank accounts. These measures are designed to align with recommendations from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an intergovernmental body that sets global standards for combating financial crimes. The bill is expected to be introduced in the Grand National Assembly, though no specific timetable has been announced. If passed, Masak would be empowered to freeze or close accounts suspected of illicit use across payment systems, electronic money institutions, banks, and cryptocurrency exchanges. The agency could also impose transaction limits or blacklist crypto wallets linked to criminal activity.
A key focus of the legislation is to curb the use of “rented accounts,” where criminals pay individuals to use their accounts for activities such as illegal gambling or financial fraud. While the government is increasing its oversight, cryptocurrency trading and investment remain legal in Turkey, and as of October, profits are not subject to taxation. The Finance Ministry is also preparing new rules that would require crypto exchanges to collect detailed information on the source and purpose of transactions, as well as introduce limits on stablecoin transfers.
This follows other recent regulatory actions. In July, the Capital Markets Board (CMB), a key financial regulator in Turkey, announced that it had blocked access to several platforms offering “unauthorized” digital asset services. The blocked platforms included PancakeSwap, a decentralized exchange. The increased regulatory focus coincides with rising crypto adoption in the country, a trend noted in the September Chainalysis Global Crypto Adoption Index. This growth is supported by centralized retail platforms and the increasing availability of institutional crypto services.
A primary driver for this adoption has been the sharp depreciation of the Turkish lira, which has been in decline since 2018 amid a financial crisis marked by high inflation and rising borrowing costs. As the lira’s value has fallen, many citizens have turned to dollar-pegged stablecoins and Bitcoin as alternative stores of value. To illustrate the scale of the currency’s decline, one Bitcoin was worth about 100,000 Turkish lira in 2020. Today, that same Bitcoin is valued at over 4.6 million lira, a figure reflecting both Bitcoin’s price appreciation and the lira’s steep depreciation.
