ISTANBUL — The Turkish lira's dramatic slump
has added fuel to a surge in cryptocurrency trading in the country, data
showed, with investors hoping to both gain from bitcoin's rally and shelter
against inflation.
اضافة اعلان
Turkey's currency has lost over 13 percent since
President Tayyip Erdogan fired central bank Governor Naci Agbal earlier this
month, stoking fears of looser policy and rising price pressures that could
erode the lira's value.
The aftermath of the Agbal's sacking accelerated an
already growing boom in Turkey's crypto market.
Trading volumes between the start of February and March
24 hit 218 billion lira ($26 billion) with a spike on the weekend of Agbal's
ouster, data from US researcher Chainalysis shared with Reuters showed, surging
from a little over 7 billion lira in the same period a year earlier.
The jump echoes soaring global interest in crypto,
driven by bitcoin's rally to a record of just under $62,000 as major investors
and companies embraced the emerging asset.
Yet investors in Turkey said a weaker lira and inflation
pressures, as well as hopes of quick gains, have driven demand.
Many of them shrugged off the volatility of
cryptocurrencies, which financial watchdogs across the world have warned could
lead to investors losing their money.
"If my savings are in lira, they are losing
value," said Izzet Emre Ari, a 25-year-old computer engineer who started
investing in crypto two months ago.
"Sometimes I watch its performance like a horse
race," said Ari, who has added savings to his crypto account now holding
some $4,000.
Spiking inflation
Bitcoin's march to record highs has come as governments
and central banks open the stimulus taps to counter the economic damage caused
by the COVID-19 pandemic.
A narrative that its limited supply makes it impervious
to inflation — bitcoin is often seen as a store of value, despite its
volatility — has partly fueled its gains.
In Turkey, inflation jumped more than expected to nearly
16 percent in February, well above a 5 percent target.
Turkish residents and businesses have long piled into
gold and foreign currencies to shield themselves from lira wobbles, with
dollarization near record highs.
"Turkish people like stable assets due to our
history of high inflation," said Ozgur Guneri, CEO of cryptocurrency
exchange BtcTurk, which attracted over a million new users between January and
March. "That is why generation after generation of Turks invested in gold,
real estate, and dollars."
Between March 20-24, when the lira tumbled 10 percent
after the central bank governor's sacking, crypto worth 23 billion lira ($2.8
billion) was traded, the data showed, versus 1 billion lira in the same period
last year.
Turkish Google searches for cryptocurrency hit a record
high in the week before the sacking.
Analysts said investors bought stablecoins, designed to
avoid the volatility of bitcoin, on the weekend of the ouster before converting
to dollars when forex markets reopened.
Trading volumes of Tether, a major stablecoin, hit 2.2
billion lira ($265 million) on the weekend of March 20-21, versus around 39
million lira a year earlier, data showed.
"Crypto exchanges are open 24/7," said Altug
Isler, an analyst and founder of the Kripto Teknik website. "A lot people
bought Tether that weekend, preparing for Monday."
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