Turkey is also planning a state cryptocurrency Turkcoin

As announced yesterday, Turkey is also planning a state cryptocurrency. Ahmet Kenan Tanrikulu, Deputy Chairman of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), has published the proposal for a Turkcoin. The proposal provides for a state cryptocurrency in the form of “asset-backed security”, which is secured by state assets in the form of company shares.

According to a report by the Al-Monitor news agency, Ahmet Kenan Tanrikulu, vice chairman of the Nationalist Movement Party; wrote a report to propose a state-sponsored cryptocurrency called Turkcoin.

In the current composition of the Turkish parliament, the MHP is only the fourth largest party in Turkey. However, during the constitutional referendum last year, the MHP entered into an informal coalition with the AKP to recruit President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

So far, Turkey has taken a rather unfriendly attitude towards cryptocurrencies. The “typical” arguments that cryptocurrencies are a pyramidal system, have no intrinsic value, and encourage illegal activity were the main arguments.
However, Tancrulu of the MHP now argues that Turkey should legislate to regulate and control the market in order to generate revenue for the state:

The introduction of encouraging regulations after the cryptocurrency, especially from bitcoin. In this context, the country needs a bitcoin bourse and legislation to regulate this realm.

He further argued that Turkey should create its own cryptocurrency before it is too late:

The world is advancing towards a new digital system. Turkey should create its own digital system and currency before it’s too late.

According to the Al-Monitor report, the Turkish Ministry of Finance and the Capital Markets Commission have already begun work on legislation. The report says that the “Turkcoin”, according to the proposal of the MHP, provides for a kind of asset-backed security, d. H. a government bond in which the claims for payment of a creditor are secured by claims.

Unlike Venzuela, however, no oil or gold should be used to secure the claims, but a “Wealth Fund” should be established. In this could state assets in the form of company shares, u. a. Turkish Airlines, the Istanbul Stock Exchange, Botas, Turk Telecom, Ziraat Bank and the National Lottery serve as collateral. The cryptocurrency would be worth at least as much as the assets in the Wealth Fund.

Already in an interview on 7 February, Deputy Prime Minister and member of the ruling AKP party, Mehmet Simsek, hinted that the government might be preparing for a national cryptocurrency (“intends to do unique cryptocurrency work”). In this respect, the creation of a state-owned cryptocurrency in Turkey seems from our point of view not unlikely.