Turkey’s cryptocurrency userbase has grown by more than 11-fold in a year, according to a survey by local trading platform Paribu.
Out of 1,400 respondents, 7.7 percent said they had traded in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, Paribu said, citing the ‘Cryptocurrency Awareness and Perception Survey 2021’, held in conjunction with Akademetre Research. Research a year ago showed 0.7 percent of 6,000 respondents had traded in crypto, Paribu said on Thursday.
Turks are turning to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, as well as foreign currencies and gold, after the lira slid to successive record lows against the dollar over the past year.
Paribu said users of its platform have grown to over 4 million from 600,000 since the previous survey.
Scandals affecting trading platforms were, however, affecting confidence in the industry, the survey showed.
The proportion of people possessing “great confidence” in cryptocurrencies fell to 25.3 percent from 34.2 percent a year ago, Paribu said.
“Interest in cryptocurrencies has increased dramatically in a year,” said Paribu CEO Yasin Oral. “We see that Turkey has the potential to play a leading role in cryptocurrencies. In April, some platforms caused user grievances. While the interest in cryptocurrencies is increasing, we see once again the necessity of regulation to ensure full trust.”
Ahval