FSB Urges Stablecoin Rules for Turkey's $200 Billion Crypto Market

FSB Peer Review of Türkiye

The Financial Stability Board called on Turkey on Wednesday to adopt dedicated stablecoin rules and tighten its supervision of crypto markets, in a peer review of the country's implementation of the board's 2023 global recommendations for crypto assets. The review, part of the FSB's regular program of country assessments, credits Turkish authorities with progress on registering and licensing crypto service providers, but finds the jurisdiction still lacks a stablecoin framework and should start monitoring crypto-related risks to financial stability under a formal structure. It follows a broader 2025 FSB review that found gaps in how jurisdictions worldwide had implemented the same recommendations.

On stablecoins, the document asks issuers to build mechanisms that keep each token stable against its reference currency and to manage reserves transparently, while users gain a right to redeem holdings for the reference currency on time. For local platforms distributing dollar stablecoins issued abroad, the board wants stronger requirements on the content and audit of reserves. The review also recommends clarifying how a recent amendment to electronic-money law, which can treat certain stablecoins as equivalent to e-money, relates to payment legislation, and keeping measures that block the use of dollar stablecoins in domestic payments; Turkey bans crypto in payments outright.

The board acknowledges safeguards already in place. Turkey's Capital Markets Board introduced licensing and operational requirements for exchanges and custodians in March 2025, including minimum capital thresholds, alongside asset-segregation rules for custody and a centralized platform for monitoring crypto activity. Supervisors are asked to strengthen enforcement, improve information sharing with foreign regulators, and track household crypto investment, currency flows and the links between crypto firms and banks on a regular basis.

7.1 Million Accounts, $200 Billion Volume

The assessment, which covers steps taken through August 2026, sizes the Turkish market in detail. Data cited in the report put crypto transaction volume near $200 billion in 2025, ranking Turkey among the twenty largest markets worldwide and first in the Middle East and North Africa. More than 7.1 million crypto accounts belong to 5.3 million account holders, and 51% of accounts carry a balance. Assets registered with domestic service providers were valued at roughly $3 billion in 2026.

Retail investors dominate activity, and trading is driven mainly by expectations of price gains. Dollar-indexed stablecoins serve as a hedge against lira depreciation and inflation and as a channel for moving funds abroad; blockchain data referenced in the review put them at 17% of transactions in 2025. BiLira (TRYB), the only stablecoin issued by a domestic entity, has a market value of about $5.9 million. The financial-crime regulator MASAK applies limits of $3,000 per day and $50,000 per month to certain stablecoin transfers. Because domestic platforms are confined to spot trading, users seeking margin trading or derivatives often move to foreign venues; figures cited in the review put Binance Global's share of the Turkish market near 70% in the first quarter of 2026.

Licensing emerges as the main bottleneck. A July 2024 law brought crypto service providers under Capital Markets Board supervision with capital, liquidity and custody rules, including a requirement to hold at least 95% of client assets with an authorized custodian by the end of each day. On-site inspections are complete, but limited technology-audit capacity and a shortage of authorized custodians have slowed the transition. Six banks held preliminary approval from the banking regulator for crypto custody by the end of June 2026, with three cleared by the markets regulator. The FSB wants a published timeline for every stage of the move from provisional registration to full licensing. Assets on foreign platforms and in users' own wallet addresses sit outside the national registry, which has aggregated domestic platform data weekly since early 2026.

Advisory Recommendations, Not Law

The peer review carries no binding force: it is a recommendation to Turkish authorities, and any new obligation on stablecoin issuers or platforms requires separate domestic rulemaking. Read against the market data in the same document, the priorities look consistent. Dollar stablecoins dominate usage while the lone domestic issuer accounts for barely $5.9 million, so reserve transparency would operate mainly through local distributors of foreign tokens, the exact group the review singles out. The licensing delay is the practical constraint: with provisional registration still the norm and custodians scarce, supervision cannot tighten until full licenses issue. The near-term items to track are the central bank's rules on e-money equivalence for stablecoins and whether the Capital Markets Board publishes the staged licensing calendar the board requested.