Are Foreign Cryptocurrency Exchanges Banned in Turkey? Should Investors Withdraw Their Money?

After the AK Party announced the cryptocurrency bill, investors who kept their investments in global stock exchanges felt uneasy with the statement that “foreign stock exchanges are being banned.”

So are foreign exchanges really banned? Should investors holding crypto assets on foreign exchanges withdraw their money?

According to the proposal announced by AK Party Group Chairman Abdullah Güler, a licensing system is being introduced for crypto asset exchanges in our country, as in the USA and many European countries.

Foreign exchanges that operate abroad and have not yet established a company in Turkey will be able to operate in our country by first establishing a company in Turkey and fulfilling the necessary conditions to obtain a license announced by the CMB.

Foreign stock exchanges that already have companies in Turkey will be able to continue their activities in our country by fulfilling the necessary conditions to obtain a license to be announced by the CMB.

We see that the main criterion here is not the foreign origin of the company, but whether it has a company established in Turkey. It seems quite possible that stock exchanges will establish a separate company in Turkey, obtain a license and continue their activities in Turkey in this way.

We have observed that similar initiatives have been taken in licensing studies for Binance and other cryptocurrency exchanges in many European countries, and that the exchanges have established a new company in the relevant country, obtained a license through this company and continue their activities. We think that this issue will be similar in Turkey and stock exchanges will comply with legal regulations.

The fact that many global stock exchanges (BinanceTR, GateTR, OKXTR) already have companies established in Turkey shows that a transition process in compliance with the law can be achieved in this process.

For example; Currently, US-based CitiBank has received a CMB license and operates as a brokerage house through Citi Menkul Değerler A.Ş., which it opened in Turkey. When you examine the CMB’s list of intermediary institutions, you can see that many foreign companies can obtain a license by establishing a company established in Turkey.

Should We Withdraw Our Crypto Assets from Foreign Exchanges?

In this regard, we would like to remind you that, in principle, you should store your crypto assets in your personal wallets, not in exchanges. However, we felt the need to make this statement in case you are worried about the recent news.

With the 17th article of the bill, the provisional article 11 was added to Law No. 6362. This article foresees the transition period after the law comes into force. Therefore, there is no such thing as a law passed tomorrow, let’s close access to these exchanges, you can’t withdraw money anymore.

The 4th paragraph of the provisional article 11 regulates the transition period for stock exchanges that are not resident in Turkey. The full text of the paragraph is as follows:

“Crypto asset service providers resident abroad shall terminate their activities towards persons residing in Turkey, as specified in the first paragraph of Article 99/A of the Law, within three months following the date of entry into force of the Law.”

As can be seen from this article, a 3-month transition period is foreseen in the law for stock exchanges that are solely located abroad and do not intend to obtain any license in Turkey. This transition period is a regulation introduced to prevent investors from being victimized.

In summary, investors will be able to withdraw their assets from foreign exchanges within 3 months if the law is passed by the parliament in its current form and the proposal becomes law.

Considering that the law is still at the proposal stage and its transitional provisions, lawyers state that there is no reason for investors to panic.

Update: 18.05

Shortly after our news was published, a statement came from AK Party Deputy Chairman and Head of Information and Communication Technologies Ömer İleri. You can find the explanation here.