Turkey, The European Country With Most Crypto Ownership

By Rishma Banerjee

Bitcoin, which is the most popular of all the cryptocurrencies also boasts of the most use cases available. Many countries are also gearing up to introduce Bitcoins into the main economic framework. Turkey is one such country that has adopted Bitcoin, massively, either for payments or investments, a move that is due to the high adoption rate driven by inflation and devaluing national currency.

According to a recent ING survey, it has been found out that Turkey is the European country with most cryptocurrency ownership. The report says that 18% of Turks own or trade cryptocurrency which is significantly greater than the 9% which is the average. Countries which also made it to the top are Romania (12%), Poland (11%), Spain (10%), Czech Republic (9%), Austria(8%), and Germany (8%). There’s also Italy, Netherlands (7%), United Kingdom (6%), and France (6%).

The co-owner of Bitcoin.org, a crypto exchange tweeted about the rise in Turkey’s involvement in all things bitcoin. He said,

There’s been a massive 42% increase in visitors to http://bitcoin.org from Istanbul as the Turkish Lira plummets. This is how bitcoin takes over the world, not through ETFs and HOLD, but through replacing fiat currencies as they fall apart.

The reason behind the rise in the use of Bitcoins in Turkey is not unfathomable. The country’s inflation rate was reportedly up by almost 25 percent in September 2018 making it its highest in 15 years. Likewise, lira, Turkey’s national currency during last summer’s lira crisis devalued by 20 per cent within 24 hours, on August 10.

This has resulted in the citizens turning to Bitcoins in order to hold their funds. Emin Gün Sirer, a Turkish-American professor said that the interest in the technology that the youth of the country has, has also contributed to the growth of acceptance of the cryptocurrency. However, though the government has not explicitly said that transactions and trading of virtual currencies are illegal, it has tried many ways to ascertain that the people invest less and less in cryptocurrencies.

Rishma Banerjee

Rishma is currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in International Relations and has a special place in her life for sifting through all sorts of random trivia, thank you very much.

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