Turkish President Erdogan Says "We Are at War" with Cryptocurrencies

Turkish President Recep Tayyib Erdoğan stressed that the government "have absolutely no intention of embracing cryptocurrencies" during a Q&A in Mersin, Turkey. He told students from 81 provinces that the Turkishi government is "at war" against crypto assets. 

A young man in the audience asked President Erdoğan: “My question is about cryptocurrency. Recently, the central bank established a digital Turkish lira platform. With this decision, is Turkey planning to open up to cryptocurrencies? … We are curious about your ideas on this matter.”

“On the contrary, we have a separate war, a separate fight against them. Therefore, we would never lend support to. Because we will move forward with our own currency that has its own identity,” Erdogan clarified.

 In fact, the Turkish President was vocal in his stance to bolster all appropriate monetary policies to strengthen its fiat, Lira. “We will not give them [cryptocurrencies] such a premium, nor will we. Because we will continue on our way with our money, which is our fundamental identity in this matter,” he added.

The newly launched Digital Turkish Lira Collaboration Platform mentioned by the young man is established by the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (CBRT), which aims to adopt at some point blockchain and the usage of distributed ledgers in payment systems. 

At the end of 2020, a Turkish central bank governor said that Turkey would pilot CBDC program in 2021. In this April, Turkey's central bank announced bans on crypto currency payments.