Crypto & Blockchain Law in Turkey for Foreign Founders and Investors

Who this is for

If you run or plan to run a crypto business with a Turkish footprint, this area is for you. We act for:

• Foreign exchanges and trading platforms that want to serve Turkish users or establish a licensed local entity.
• Custodians and wallet providers holding crypto-assets for Turkish clients.
• Token issuers and Web3 projects structuring a sale, launch or treasury with a Turkish connection.
• Foreign founders and start-ups incorporating in Turkey to build a crypto or blockchain product.
• Investors, funds and family offices needing clarity on what they can lawfully hold, trade and move.

The common thread is regulatory exposure. Turkey moved from a near-unregulated market to a licensed regime in under two years, and the platforms that survive are the ones that treat the SPK and MASAK rules as a build requirement, not an afterthought. We translate those rules into decisions you can act on.

The legal framework: Law No. 7518, Capital Markets Law No. 6362 and the SPK regime

For years Turkey had a large crypto market and almost no dedicated statute. That changed with Law No. 7518, published in the Official Gazette on 2 July 2024, which amended the Capital Markets Law No. 6362 (Sermaye Piyasası Kanunu). The amendment introduced legal definitions of a crypto-asset (kripto varlık) and a crypto-asset service provider (kripto varlık hizmet sağlayıcı / CASP), and gave the Capital Markets Board its authorisation and supervision powers over the sector.

If you want the full picture of how Turkey regulates crypto assets under Law 7518, our guide walks through the regime in detail. For a plain-language overview of the rules generally, see crypto laws in Turkey explained.

The practical takeaway: operating a crypto platform that touches Turkish users is now a licensed activity. Doing it without SPK authorisation carries administrative and criminal exposure, not just commercial risk.

Licensing a crypto-asset service provider (CASP)

The core of the 2024 regime is authorisation. A platform that runs an exchange, holds client crypto in custody, or otherwise provides crypto-asset services to people in Turkey generally needs to be licensed by the SPK and structured as a qualifying Turkish entity.

In March 2025, the SPK issued secondary regulations (published in the Official Gazette on 13 March 2025) setting out establishment, operating principles, capital and platform requirements for crypto-asset service providers. These translate the headline statute into the conditions you actually apply against.

What licensing typically involves

• Entity and ownership — a qualifying Turkish company with fit-and-proper shareholders and managers.
• Capital and financial standing — minimum capital and ongoing financial-adequacy conditions set by the SPK regulation.
• Systems and custody — technical, security and asset-segregation standards for the platform and any custody function.
• Governance and AML — internal controls, risk management and a MASAK-compliant compliance function.

Our guide to the crypto platform licensing and SPK rules goes deeper on the framework. We help you assess eligibility, choose a structure, and assemble an application the SPK can actually process.

Custody, stablecoins and token issuance under Turkish law

Not every crypto business is an exchange. Custody, stablecoins and token launches each raise their own questions under the new regime, and the answer often depends on exactly what your product does — not what you call it.

• Custody — holding crypto-assets for clients is a regulated service under the SPK framework, with segregation and safekeeping standards. How you hold keys and client assets is a licensing question, not just an engineering one.
• Stablecoins — a token pegged to fiat or other value can interact with the SPK regime and with the payment rules below. We assess whether issuing, distributing or listing it triggers authorisation.
• Token issuance and sales — a token sale with a Turkish nexus needs to be tested against the crypto-asset definition and, depending on the token's features, against capital-markets concepts. We structure the offering, the documentation and the marketing so the legal characterisation matches reality.

The contractual backbone of all of this — token, custody and platform agreements — is where the regime meets your users, and where most disputes start.

MASAK and AML compliance for crypto businesses

Anti-money-laundering compliance is not optional and not secondary. Crypto-asset service providers are obligated parties (yükümlü) under MASAK Law No. 5549 and its implementing regulations, which were extended to cover crypto service providers. That brings a full set of duties.

What a MASAK programme has to cover

• Customer identification (KYC) before and during the relationship, including beneficial-ownership checks.
• Risk-based monitoring of transactions and customers.
• Suspicious-transaction reporting to MASAK within the required timeframes.
• A compliance officer, internal policies, training and record-keeping.

Weak AML controls are one of the fastest routes to administrative penalties and personal liability for managers. Building this properly from day one is far cheaper than retrofitting it under a MASAK inspection.

The payment ban: what crypto can and cannot be used for

One rule trips up almost every newcomer to the Turkish market, so it is worth stating plainly. Crypto-assets cannot be used to make payments in Turkey.

If you want the rule in the wider context of how the market is regulated, our overview of crypto laws in Turkey explained sets the payment ban alongside the licensing regime.

Tax treatment of crypto assets in Turkey

Tax is the area where confident-sounding claims do the most damage, so we are deliberately careful here.

As of mid-2026, Turkey has not enacted a dedicated crypto capital-gains tax. A 2024 draft transaction-tax proposal aimed at crypto was largely shelved and not adopted in that form. Where crypto activity is taxable, it is generally assessed under general income and corporate tax principles — depending on whether you are an individual or a company, whether the activity is occasional or a business, and how the assets are held.

If certainty on your tax exposure is what drives the decision, treat any general statement — including ours — as a starting point, and get the position confirmed for your facts before you commit capital or structure a business around it.

How we help foreign founders, exchanges and investors

We work across the full lifecycle of a crypto business in Turkey, from first structuring question to live supervision and disputes. Our crypto and blockchain services include:

• Regulatory assessment — whether your model needs SPK authorisation, and what the cleanest route is.
• CASP licensing — preparing and running the SPK application for exchanges and custodians.
• MASAK / AML build — KYC, monitoring, reporting policies and the compliance function.
• Token, custody and platform agreements — the contracts that govern your product and users.
• Tax structuring — positioning the business against current Turkish tax rules, with caveats where the law is unsettled.
• Disputes and enforcement — responding to SPK and MASAK action, and to user or counterparty claims.

You get one team that understands both the regulator's perimeter and the commercial reality of building a crypto product.

Setting up your crypto business in Turkey: entity and structure

Most licensed crypto activity in Turkey runs through a qualifying Turkish company. Getting the entity and ownership right at the start avoids expensive restructuring later, because the SPK looks closely at corporate form, shareholders and managers.

The building blocks

• Entity formation — choosing and incorporating the right company type. We can set up a Turkish company built for the licensing path you need.
• Ownership and governance — structuring shareholders, board and key personnel to meet fit-and-proper and capital conditions.
• Regulatory clearances — where your model needs broader review, we handle competition and regulatory clearance alongside the SPK application.
• Banking and operations — aligning the corporate setup with the practical realities of running a platform.

Acting remotely: power of attorney, apostille and handling matters from abroad

You do not need to be in Istanbul to instruct us or to set up your business. Most of the work — formation, licensing, compliance build — can be run remotely once we have authority to act for you.

How remote handling works

• Power of attorney (PoA) — a properly scoped PoA lets us file, sign and liaise with the SPK, MASAK and the registry on your behalf. See our guide on how to grant a power of attorney for use in Turkey.
• Apostille and legalisation — corporate and personal documents from abroad usually need an apostille (or consular legalisation) plus sworn Turkish translation.
• Remote onboarding — we collect documents, run KYC and coordinate signatures without requiring you to travel.

Risks, enforcement and common mistakes to avoid

The new regime has teeth. Because the rules are recent, there is little reported Turkish case law interpreting the 2024 crypto-asset framework yet — which means the live risk sits with regulators, not the courts, and you cannot rely on settled precedent to predict outcomes.

The mistakes we see most

• Operating without authorisation — serving Turkish users while assuming an offshore licence is enough.
• Treating AML as paperwork — a policy document with no real monitoring or reporting behind it.
• Mischaracterising a token — describing an instrument in a way that does not match what it legally is.
• Ignoring the payment ban — building a product that settles in crypto.
• Underestimating personal liability — managers and compliance officers can be exposed individually.

Why work with a Turkish crypto and blockchain lawyer

Crypto regulation in Turkey is young, fast-moving and largely untested in court. That combination is exactly where local, current legal judgement matters most. You are not buying a generic compliance template — you are buying an assessment of how the SPK and MASAK actually apply the rules right now, written in Turkish law, against your specific model.

A Turkish lawyer can read the primary sources in the original, deal directly with the regulators, structure your entity and contracts to fit the regime, and tell you honestly where the law is settled and where it is not. For a cross-border founder, that difference decides whether your platform launches cleanly or stalls in a transition window it didn't plan for.

When you're ready, the next step is a focused consultation: we look at your model, map the regulatory perimeter, and give you a clear route. Reach out through the panel on this page to start.

How we work with you

Crypto and blockchain law in Turkey: common questions