Why Turkish President Erdoğan Wages 'War' On Crypto

The Turkish president shared his uncompromising views on cryptocurrencies during a recent event.

What Happened: According to a recent report by a local news outlet, Turkish President Recep Tayyib Erdoğan was asked if the country's central bank would embrace cryptocurrencies during a recent question-and-answer event in Mersin, Turkey.

He said that the officials "have absolutely no intention of embracing cryptocurrencies" and "on the contrary, we have a separate war, a separate fight against them."

Erdoğan said that the government would never support cryptocurrencies because it intends to "move forward with our own currency that has its own identity.

Binali Yıldırım, the nation's former prime minister and Ak Party deputy chairperson, also noted that crypto requires strict supervision, likening the risk of the assets to "a sale of a fictive future."

Despite starkly opposing cryptocurrencies, Turkish authorities are eager to charge into the future moved by the wave of change that crypto spurred in the financial landscape. According to a recent announcement, Turkey's central bank signed a memorandum of understanding with three local tech and research firms to form the "Digital Turkish Lira Collaboration Platform" to work on its central bank digital currency.

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