The Financial Stability Board has urged Türkiye to establish dedicated rules for stablecoin issuers and improve supervision of cryptocurrency businesses, even as it acknowledged progress in bringing the country’s exchanges and custodians under regulation. Its November 11 country review also calls for formal monitoring of financial-stability risks and closer cooperation with authorities overseeing offshore platforms.
The review found that Türkiye has created registration and licensing requirements for crypto-asset service providers, introduced custody safeguards and built a centralised data system. Yet issuers of stablecoins remain outside a comprehensive regime covering reserve quality, redemption and the mechanisms used to maintain a token’s value. The gap is particularly relevant in Türkiye, where dollar-backed tokens offer a way to hold foreign-currency exposure amid lira depreciation.
The recommendations are not new Turkish legislation or an immediate ban on stablecoin trading. They come from the FSB’s international review programme, which assesses how national rules align with the global crypto and stablecoin recommendations adopted in 2023. The latest assessment draws on reforms and supervisory information available through August 2026.
Stablecoin issuers remain a regulatory gap
Türkiye’s existing rules cover crypto exchanges and custodians, including the listing, trading and custody of stablecoins. Anti-money-laundering requirements also apply to relevant activity. But the FSB’s November 11 peer review says there is still no dedicated framework for the companies issuing those tokens.
The watchdog wants requirements for fiat-backed stablecoin issuers addressing redemption rights, effective stabilisation mechanisms, prudential safeguards and reserves. It also recommends clearer treatment under payments and electronic-money law, taking account of the currency a token references. For foreign-issued stablecoins offered through Turkish service providers, it proposes stronger expectations for reserve transparency and cooperation with the issuer’s home regulator.
The missing issuer regime does not mean all stablecoins are unregulated in Türkiye. The country’s prohibition on using crypto-assets for domestic payments also remains in place. That restriction limits one route into the banking and payments system, without settling how authorities should oversee a dollar token held for savings, trading or international transfers.
USDT is central to that issue. The FSB found that some Turkish users buy dollar-pegged stablecoins before transferring them to foreign platforms offering products unavailable domestically. DaveFinances has previously examined how demand for USDT in markets including Türkiye connects digital-dollar use with Tether’s Treasury holdings. The local supervisory question is narrower: who monitors the issuer’s reserves and redemption arrangements when the token circulates through Turkish exchanges?
Crypto licensing progresses, but approvals remain unfinished
Türkiye brought crypto-asset service providers under its Capital Markets Board through legislation in 2024 and detailed operating rules in March 2025. The framework covers licensing, custody, organisational standards and capital requirements. It also requires separation of client crypto-assets from firms’ own holdings, reducing some channels through which an exchange’s problems could affect customers.
The FSB found that the transition from interim registration to full licences is still being completed. It urged a defined timetable, work with auditors to resolve common deficiencies and improvements in the presentation of proof-of-reserves information and incident reports. More complete, timely submissions to the country’s Crypto Asset Central Registry System, or KVMKS, were another specific recommendation.
Banks need a closer look as well. The report asks Türkiye to examine crypto exposures held by banks and their subsidiaries and consider applicable Basel prudential standards. Banks cannot hold crypto-assets directly on their balance sheets under the framework described in the review, but subsidiaries can operate licensed services or provide custody. A ban on direct holdings does not eliminate every indirect exposure.
Nor does granting a local licence resolve the offshore problem. Turkish platforms are limited to spot trading, while residents can independently access foreign venues offering derivatives or other services unavailable at home. The FSB recommended stronger enforcement tools to address those activities and warned that domestic registration data does not capture the whole market.
A $200 billion market complicates financial-stability monitoring
Türkiye recorded nearly $200 billion in crypto transactions during 2025, placing it among the world’s 20 largest crypto markets and the largest in the Middle East and North Africa, according to the review. Authorities reported more than 7.1 million crypto accounts associated with 5.3 million entities, although only 51% of the accounts had positive wallet balances.
Domestic reporting put crypto-assets held through Turkish service providers at approximately $3 billion in 2026, equal to around 0.3% of banking-sector assets. That comparison is not a measure of total Turkish crypto wealth: it excludes self-custodied holdings and activity conducted through offshore platforms.
The review also identified BiLira’s TRYB as the only stablecoin issued by a domestic entity, with a market value of roughly $5.9 million. Foreign-currency stablecoins have a different role. Traders described them as a store of value against depreciation and as a bridge to overseas trading accounts, creating potential links between crypto demand, capital flows and demand for dollars.
The FSB wants the existing KVMKS infrastructure turned into a broader financial-stability monitoring system with specific risk indicators, incorporating on-chain analytics and cross-border transaction data. The country has already gathered considerable information, but the missing piece is a consistent way to assess how stress could move from crypto trading into banks, payments and foreign-exchange markets.
What the review means for exchanges and stablecoin providers
None of the FSB recommendations imposes a new trading restriction by itself. The board’s standards are not directly binding on Turkish companies; domestic regulators would need to decide how and when to implement further rules.
For exchanges seeking full licences, the practical priorities are clearer approval schedules, audit findings, custody disclosures and better incident reporting. Stablecoin distributors may eventually face greater scrutiny of an overseas issuer’s reserves and redemption process, even if the token itself is issued outside Türkiye.
The comparison with foreign rulebooks is useful but not exact. DaveFinances previously reported on the European Union’s MiCA framework for crypto firms and stablecoin issuers, which already distinguishes issuer obligations from the permissions required for trading platforms. Türkiye has built much of the latter but has not completed the former.
Similar issuer-focused requirements are being developed in the United States. As detailed in DaveFinances’ review of USDT reserves under American stablecoin rules, backing assets and redemption standards can determine whether a foreign-issued token remains eligible for certain markets. Those rules do not apply automatically in Türkiye; they show the sort of questions the FSB says Turkish policymakers still need to answer.
The review leaves officials with a fairly specific job: finish licensing local service providers, monitor offshore exposures and write an issuer regime that accounts for dollar stablecoins without reversing the existing domestic-payment ban. No timetable for the stablecoin legislation was announced with the FSB report.
Johan Shamshad is Editor-in-Chief at Dave Finances, covering financial markets, digital assets, trading platforms, brokers, fintech, payments and regulation. Since 2023, he has also worked as an editor at Gulf News, the UAE English-language newspaper published by Al Nisr Publishing LLC. His work focuses on market-moving developments, company disclosures, regulatory changes and trading infrastructure, with an emphasis on primary-source verification and practical context for traders and investors.