Published date: 16 April 2021 11:38 UTC
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Last update: 5 sec ago
The Turkish government has banned overnight the use of cryptocurrencies and crypto assets to purchase goods and services, via a Central Bank regulation published in the Official Gazette on Friday.
The Central Bank, in a subsequent press statement, said that “crypto assets entail significant risk” to the interested parties, including creating “non-recoverable losses”.
The decision also bans the use of digital wallets in cryptocurrency transactions.
The regulation, which will take effect on 30 April, pushed Bitcoin down by 2.59 percent to $61,757 on Friday morning.
For the past two years, an estimated one million to three million Turkish citizens have invested in cryptocurrencies and assets to benefit from the Bitcoin rally and protect their savings against annual inflation of up to 16 percent. The daily Turkish transactions in the cryptomarket are valued at over $1bn, with nearly one third of the daily transactions taking place in the Istanbul Stock Exchange.