Turkey’s central bank has put up a ban on use of cryptocurrencies to purchase goods and services.
In legislation published in the Official Gazette overnight, the Central Bank of Turkey(CBRT) said cryptocurrencies and other digital assets that have an underlining base on distributed ledger technology could not be used, directly or indirectly, as an instrument of payment.
The bank stated,
“Payment service providers will not be able to develop business models in a way that crypto assets are used directly or indirectly in the provision of payment services and electronic money issuance, and will not be able to provide any services related to such business models.”
The country’s crypto market has gained pace recently and a lot of investors were hoping to gain from BTC’s rally and shelter against growing inflation.
As per Turkey’s media agency AA, the country’s annual inflation rate climbed 15.61% in February and recent estimates suggest that the number went north of 16% in March.
These inflation pressures as well as a weaker Turkish lira have increased the demand for cryptocurrency.
The banks explained that the reason for the crypto ban was that these assets were “neither subject to any regulation and supervision mechanisms nor a central regulatory authority.”
The legislation goes into effect on April 30th. Amidst this ban, BTC fell 2.59% to $61,757.