Turkey Prohibits Usage Of Crypto Assets For Payments

As an initiative to regulate crypto assets, Turkey published its Regulation on not Using Crypto Assets in Payments ("Regulation") on April 16, 2021. According to Article 5 of the Regulation it will enter into force on April 30, 2021. Consisting of important provisions on crypto assets the Regulation can bring significant impact on the country's agenda regarding crypto assets.

1. First Turkish Law Definition for Crypto Assets

While the Regulation reserves that its definition for crypto assets should be deemed applicable for implementation of the Regulation itself, in its Article 3/1, it is important to underline that the Regulation provides a definition for crypto assets for the first time under Turkish law as "intangible assets that are created virtually using distributed ledger technology or a similar technology and distributed over digital networks, but are not qualified as fiat currency, fiduciary money, electronic money, payment instrument, securities or