Türkiye should draft rules that specifically govern stablecoins, the Financial Stability Board (FSB) said in a peer review published on Wednesday, November 11. The full report (PDF) pairs the recommendation with data showing that demand for dollar-pegged stablecoins relative to the size of the economy is higher in Türkiye than anywhere else in the world. The Basel-based body's assessment tracks data up to August 2026.

The recommendation lands where usage and regulation diverge most sharply: Turkish residents are among the heaviest stablecoin users in the world, yet the country has no stablecoin-specific framework, so there are currently no domestic requirements that issuers hold adequate reserves or honor redemption requests.

Many Turks trade on platforms Türkiye cannot see

The FSB acknowledged that Turkish authorities have already finalized a framework for crypto assets, but said the country's monitoring system has blind spots and that Türkiye does not yet have a framework for stablecoins.

Türkiye began weekly reporting in early 2026 through the Crypto Asset Central Registry System (KVMKS). The FSB's concern is that the registry only collects data from platforms licensed domestically, meaning funds held on foreign exchanges and in self-custody wallets fall outside its net. In a market where dollar-pegged tokens serve as both a savings vehicle and a way to fund overseas trading accounts, that gap defines how much of actual stablecoin activity authorities are able to observe.

Domestic options for leveraged or derivatives trading do not exist, since platforms are approved only to offer spot trading. Demand for those products is routed to offshore venues instead.

BtcTurk, Türkiye's largest trading platform, has suffered three security breaches in two years and lost about $48 million in its most recent incident, as Cryptopolitan reported. The country had earlier cleared a Financial Action Task Force review while remaining on the watchdog's watchlist, according to a separate Cryptopolitan report.

Stablecoin demand is the world's highest

The stablecoin concerns raised by the FSB reflect the scale of Turkish demand. According to Chainalysis data reported in 2024, Turks spent 4.3% of the country's GDP buying stablecoins, the highest share in the world and ahead of Thailand, Georgia and the United States.

Tether's USDT and other dollar-pegged tokens are sought for two main reasons: they shield savings from local inflation and declines in the lira, and they are used to fund accounts on overseas trading platforms.

Türkiye ranks among the world's top 20 crypto markets, with nearly $200 billion in annual transactions. Dollar-pegged stablecoins accounted for about 17% of on-chain transactions in 2025. By comparison, BiLira (TRYB), the only locally issued lira stablecoin, has a market value of nearly $5.9 million — a gap that means everyday stablecoin use in Türkiye runs almost entirely through dollar tokens rather than locally issued ones.

What the FSB recommended to Ankara

The FSB told Turkish authorities to establish a regime specifically for stablecoins, including rules on reserves and redemptions. It recommended that Ankara require issuers to keep tokens close to their reference currency, manage reserves transparently and give holders a timely right to cash out.

Some controls already exist, including caps on stablecoin transfers imposed by the Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK). The FSB also wants a published timeline for each stage of resolving the audit capacity and custody bottlenecks that have stalled progress toward full licensing. Whether Ankara publishes that timeline, and how stablecoin rules are folded into the existing crypto-asset framework, is the next concrete development to watch.

The recommendations follow the FSB's October 2025 finding of significant gaps and inconsistencies in the global implementation of its crypto-asset and stablecoin recommendations. Peer reviews are the mechanism through which the FSB assesses how individual jurisdictions are putting those recommendations into practice, placing Türkiye's gaps within a global picture of uneven implementation.

Source: Cryptopolitan