The Turkish government has announced that cryptocurrency exchanges in the country will have to report transactions that report 10,000 Turkish liras (equivalent to US $ 1,200) to the government’s financial crime agency, according to a report by Decrypt.
Announcing the decision on national channel CNN Türk, Turkish Finance Minister Lütfi Elvan noted that exchanges would have ten days to report clients who execute transactions that exceed this benchmark.
The minister claimed that the government did not believe that cryptocurrency traders had malicious intent but that their anti-money laundering (AML) rules were modeled on those of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an international standard-setter for AML regulations.
“People need to educate themselves about crypto,” Elvan said, adding, “I hear a lot from citizens who invest in crypto and when I ask them what crypto is they often have no idea.”
However, the minister did not announce when the new rule would take effect.
The new rule is only part of Turkey’s rapidly evolving regulatory environment regarding the use of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. In April, the use of cryptocurrency payment services was banned due to the lack of mechanisms for the central authority to monitor such payments. Reports surfaced later that month suggesting the country would set up a central bank custodian to exchange cryptocurrencies after operators of two local exchanges committed apparent exit scams.
Meanwhile, the lira has depreciated significantly over the past year, making Bitcoin an attractive option for citizens given these mounting regulatory barriers to use.
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