• Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has ordered the nation’s ruling party to study matters of cryptocurrencies and the metaverse.
• The country has, in the past, not been quite accommodative of digital assets, even with runaway inflation and the Lira on freefall.

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, current President of Turkey, has now directed the nation’s ruling party to study new developments, including those surrounding cryptocurrencies and the metaverse.

According to a Wednesday local media report, Erdoğan gave these instructions during a Tuesday meeting of the central executive board of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party). The party is the largest in Turkey and is currently under the chairmanship of President Erdoğan.

Other than researching the matter, the President would like party members to organize a forum discussing those areas. 

“It is a sensitive subject. A good and meticulous study should be done,” Erdoğan said at the meeting.

Meanwhile, Ömer Çelik, the AK Party spokesperson and a former Turkish Minister of European Union Affairs, said there are numerous issues affecting people’s lives and the economy.

When all these issues are discussed, it will be seen that there are some threats as well as benefits.

He also called for the legal regulation of the aforementioned issues.

Turkey on crypto and the metaverse industry

Additionally, Çelik emphasized the President’s order, saying:

A forum will be held in the near future under the chairmanship of our president. The technological, philosophical, political, and economic dimensions of these concepts (cryptocurrency and metaverse) will be comprehensively discussed.

As for the Metaverse, some reports say thousands of virtual territories in Turkey have already been purchased in game-based Metaverse platforms. Moreover, the Turkish ruling party last week held a meeting in the metaverse to discuss crypto regulation. In support of such technology, Grand National Assembly of Turkey chairman Mustafa Elitaş said, “I believe that metaverse-based meetings would be improved expeditiously and become an essential part of our lives.”

Turkey is not the only country looking to study the dynamics, risks, and benefits of digital assets and currencies. A few days ago, Bloomberg reported that the Biden administration is working on an executive order exploring similar matters. Over 100 countries are also considering introducing central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), including the US, the UK, and Israel. Last September, the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (CBRT) announced that it had partnered with tech defense firms for research into its CBDC – the digital Lira. Results for the same are expected this year.

The war against cryptocurrencies

However, Turkey has, in the past, not held quite a friendly attitude towards cryptocurrencies. Last April, the country issued a ban on all direct and indirect payments involving Bitcoin and other digital assets, citing security risks. Erdoğan, an individual who has been particularly salty towards cryptocurrencies, declared war against Bitcoin last year.

Nevertheless, Turkey was witnessing increased crypto trading volumes of over a million trades daily in December. This was fueled by the country’s current inflation crisis (at 16 percent), with Lira losing half its value against the dollar. The recent move now points to possible regulation of new technologies rather than an outright ban.