Despite a government crackdown and high-profile exchange collapses last year, Turks are flocking to crypto as a hedge against lira distress.
Interest in crypto among Turks, like the rest of the world, has increased over the years. But Turkey’s economic crisis has pushed millions of curious observers to actually sink their savings into Bitcoin, Ethereum and other coins. The new converts aren’t simply drawn to the investment promise of cryptocurrencies, which are prone to wild, volatile price swings. They see virtual currencies as a potential store of value to shield their savings as the lira is roiled by routs that saw the Turkish currency lose more than 40 percent of its value last year alone.
The growing appetite for crypto is the latest manifestation of the Turkish public’s search for reliable investments, said Cem Yilmaz, who founded NakitCoins in 2018 and has now opened three branches in the country.