FSB urges Turkey to strengthen crypto oversight and set stablecoin rules

The Financial Stability Board urged Turkey to introduce dedicated stablecoin rules and strengthen crypto-market supervision in a peer review published on November 11. The international body acknowledged substantial regulatory progress but said further measures were needed to bring the country’s approach into closer alignment with its global recommendations.

Turkish authorities have brought a large part of the crypto market under regulatory oversight through registration and licensing requirements for crypto-asset service providers, the FSB said. The framework provides a stronger foundation for understanding how those businesses operate and how their activities could transmit risks to the wider financial system.

Existing safeguards include strict separation of assets held in custody and a prohibition on using crypto assets for domestic payments. The FSB said those measures limit some channels through which problems in crypto markets could spread to banks and payment systems. Authorities have also put a centralized data platform into operation to monitor crypto activity.

The country’s licensing framework has developed alongside more detailed requirements for exchanges and custodians. According to Cointelegraph, Turkey’s Capital Markets Board introduced licensing and operational rules in March 2025, including minimum capital thresholds. The FSB’s assessment nevertheless distinguishes between establishing a regulatory framework and making supervision and enforcement effective in practice.

Stablecoins remain a central gap. The FSB’s broader 2025 review found that Turkey had finalized a framework for crypto assets but lacked a dedicated stablecoin regime. The new country review calls for issuer requirements addressing redemption rights, stabilization mechanisms and prudential safeguards, alongside clearer interaction with payments and electronic-money legislation.

The report describes Turkey’s crypto market as largely driven by retail participants, with stablecoins used as a store of value and a hedge against inflation and currency depreciation. It also identifies offshore activity as a constraint on regulatory visibility. Those characteristics make oversight relevant not only to individual service providers but also to cross-border financial flows.

The recommendations sit within the FSB’s global crypto framework, finalized in July 2023. That framework contains separate sets of recommendations for crypto-asset activities and global stablecoin arrangements, with financial stability as its central focus. It seeks internationally consistent regulation proportionate to the risks of the underlying activity rather than its technological form.

The FSB’s broader 2025 implementation review found progress across jurisdictions but also significant gaps and inconsistencies. Turkey’s assessment applies that international agenda to its domestic market, emphasizing that licensing, data collection and custody safeguards need to be supported by ongoing risk monitoring and effective supervisory action.

The next steps identified by the FSB are to make financial stability monitoring operational, establish a dedicated stablecoin regime and strengthen enforcement. It also urged more effective cooperation and information sharing with foreign regulators. The recommendations set out an oversight agenda for Turkish authorities; they do not themselves enact new domestic rules.