TURKEY Law and Practice Contributed by: Caghan Tansel, TANSEL
3. Licensing and Set-Up Requirements 3.1 Licensing Requirements Triggers for Requiring a Licence Türkiye does not license the use of blockchain tech- nology as such; the licence trigger is the provision of regulated crypto-asset services. A CMB licence analy- sis is required where a business operates as a CASP, including as a platform on which crypto-asset pur- chase and sale, initial sale or distribution, exchange, transfer, related custody or other CMB-designated transactions are carried out, or as a crypto-asset cus- tody service provider. In practice, operating a Turkish- facing exchange, broker-type platform, custody ser- vice, wallet/private-key management service, transfer infrastructure or token initial-sale/distribution channel may trigger CMB authorisation, together with MASAK AML/CFT obligations. The core licensing framework is set out in Law No 7518 and the CMB’s 2025 Com- The Turkish regime is aimed not only at entities incor- porated in Türkiye but also at services directed at per- sons resident in Türkiye. Foreign CASPs were required to terminate Türkiye-facing activities by 2 October 2024 if they were conducting activities within the meaning of Article 99/A of the Capital Markets Law. The CMB has also indicated that additional criteria may be used to assess whether activities are directed at Turkish residents. muniqués III-35/B.1 and III-35/B.2. Territorial Scope and Offshore Firms Conversely, services obtained entirely on a user’s own initiative from an offshore provider, without Türkiye- facing promotion, marketing or solicitation, are gen- erally treated differently from active targeting. A for- eign entity is not automatically required to set up in Türkiye merely because a board member is located there, but if management, operations, marketing or customer-facing activity are in substance carried out from or directed at Türkiye, CMB licensing and local establishment issues may arise. To obtain authorisa- tion, a CASP must generally be structured as a Turkish joint-stock company with the governance, capital and organisational requirements prescribed by the CMB.
• MASAK administrative fines for AML breaches; and • criminal exposure for unauthorised CASP activity. MASAK also states that repeated AML non-compli- ance may ultimately be referred to the relevant author- ity for activity restriction, suspension or licence cancel- lation. Overall, enforcement is becoming increasingly active and formal, particularly against unauthorised or The CMB’s approach to cross-border crypto activity is territorial and user-targeting based. Offshore plat- forms may be treated as carrying out unauthorised CASP activity if they target Turkish residents – for example through Turkish-language services, market- ing, customer acquisition or other Turkey-facing activi- ties. The CMB has used access-blocking mechanisms under Articles 99/A and 99 of the Capital Markets Law against websites determined to be providing unau- thorised services to persons in Türkiye. This means that foreign firms should not assume that being incor- porated outside Türkiye avoids Turkish regulation if the commercial reality is that Turkish users are being solicited or served. Likely Direction Over the Next 12 Months The regulators’ approach is likely to become stricter in practice, even if the next phase is more about imple- mentation than new primary legislation. The CMB’s 2025 communiqués created the detailed licensing, custody, capital adequacy, internal systems and audit framework for CASPs, and the CMB has continued to manage transition issues, including 2026 extensions relating to custody agreements and authorisation cer- tificates. MASAK also updated its CASP guidance in September 2025, confirming that AML/CFT compli- ance remains a priority. Accordingly, enforcement is expected to focus on licensing readiness, custody compliance, AML/Travel Rule controls, unauthorised foreign platforms and misleading Turkey-facing mar- keting. cross-border platforms. Cross-Border Breaches
664 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook