Is crypto legal in Turkey? Rules & regulation (2026)

Özer, serving an 11,196-year sentence for Turkey's largest crypto fraud, was found dead in his cell at Tekirdağ F-Type High Security Prison. His death closed the final chapter of the landmark criminal case that catalysed Turkey's regulatory overhaul.

Turkey's Capital Markets Board published two binding communiqués establishing a two-tier licensing regime for crypto asset service providers: minimum paid-in capital of TRY 150 million for exchanges and TRY 500 million for custodians, mandatory SPK establishment approval before commencing operations, and full compliance required by 30 June 2025. These secondary regulations operationalised Law No. 7518.

Turkey's Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK) required all CASPs to collect and transmit sender and recipient identification data for crypto transfers of TRY 15,000 or above, aligning with FATF's Travel Rule standard. Non-compliance carries severe administrative sanctions under the Measures Regulation.

Published in Official Gazette No. 32590, the amendment to the Capital Markets Law placed crypto assets under SPK supervision for the first time, introduced statutory definitions for crypto assets, wallets, platforms, custodians, and CASPs, mandated SPK licensing for all service providers, and imposed criminal penalties of 3-5 years' imprisonment for unauthorised activity. This is the foundational statute of Turkey's current regulatory framework.

The Financial Action Task Force delisted Turkey after it achieved substantial compliance with 39 of 40 FATF Recommendations, including strengthened AML/CFT oversight of crypto platforms. The delisting removed heightened due-diligence requirements imposed on Turkish financial institutions since October 2021 and validated Turkey's regulatory reform trajectory.

An Istanbul court convicted Faruk Fatih Özer of aggravated fraud, leading a criminal organisation, and money laundering following the $2 billion Thodex collapse, imposing sentences totalling over 11,000 years across Özer and his two siblings. The verdict established a landmark precedent for criminal prosecution of crypto fraud in Turkey.

Faruk Fatih Özer, who fled Turkey after the April 2021 exchange collapse, was located in Vlorë, Albania and extradited to Turkish authorities. His arrest demonstrated Turkey's growing international law-enforcement reach in crypto fraud cases.

FATF added Turkey to its Jurisdictions Under Increased Monitoring list, citing strategic deficiencies in AML/CFT supervision across banking, real estate, and crypto sectors. As the largest economy on the grey list, the listing created strong political pressure to formalise crypto regulation.

A presidential decree expanded Turkey's AML Measures Regulation to classify crypto asset service providers as obliged financial entities subject to MASAK supervision, imposing KYC, transaction monitoring, suspicious-activity reporting, and record-keeping obligations. This was Turkey's first formal AML/CFT framework applied specifically to the crypto sector.

The CBRT Regulation on the Prohibition of Crypto Assets as Payment, published in Official Gazette No. 31456 and effective 30 April 2021, prohibited the direct or indirect use of crypto assets for goods and services payments and barred payment institutions and e-money institutions from facilitating fund flows to crypto exchanges. Holding, trading, and exchanging crypto remained explicitly legal, and provided the first statutory definition of crypto assets in Turkish law.

Turkish crypto exchange Thodex abruptly halted trading and withdrawals as founder Özer fled the country; police raided its offices. The incident exposed the complete absence of investor-protection or licensing rules for crypto exchanges and became the direct catalyst for Turkey's subsequent regulatory overhaul.