Bitcoin adoption in Turkey has risen significantly as locals there try and escape the collapsing Lira.
On Thursday, the failing currency hit yet another record low against the dollar, as we saw 7.95 Turkish Lira to USD, with many analysts predicting a rise to 8.5 Lira to USD.
It’s nothing new to the long-suffering Turkish citizens, but at least now with Bitcoin, they have a way out.
And with peer-to-peer Bitcoin marketplace Paxful expanding operations in Turkey, the locals there have more options for buying Bitcoin than ever before.
Turkish Lira To USD – A History of Collapses
Turkish people have long suffered from the currency collapsing. At its peak of troubles, The Turkish Lira won the unenviable Guinness Book of Records Least Valuable Currency title four times in the space of ten years back in the 1990s.
Turkey’s annual inflation rate averages 36.57% and with mismanagement at every level, it’s not going to slow down any time soon.
It’s not just recent times either. The value of the Turkish Lira was 9 to 1 USD back in the 1960s. But don’t let that fool you.
Debasement after debasement, saw the perennially failing currency add zeros onto its lack of value and back in 2004 Turkish citizens had to spend 1,350 000 Turkish Lira to USD.
The Grand National Assembly of Turkey knew something had to be done about the crumbling Lira, and decided the best way to redenominate the currency would be to remove 6 zeros from the Lira.
The “new” valuation of the local currency was then 1.3 Turkish Lira to USD, which ironically ushered in a relative period of stability until 2012.
On this day in 2012, you had to spend 1.8 Lira to get hold of a dollar, but the collapse since then has been astronomical.
Since the days of “stability” the Turkish Lira has collapsed more than 4500% against the USD, and today long suffering Turks have to spend 7.95 Lira to USD.
Steve H. Hanke, Professor of Applied Economics at the Johns Hopkins University and a hyperinflation expert, believes the Turkish ‘Lira is toast.’
#Turkey’s #Lira is toast. The central bank’s net foreign assets are a staggering negative $32 billion. Turkey has run out of ammunition in its futile defense of the hopeless lira. Only a gold-backed currency board can save the lira.https://t.co/d5dheA2ymS
— Prof. Steve Hanke (@steve_hanke) August 3, 2020
And with no turning point insight, the only way out is for the central bank to default on payment or debase the currency even further.
Paxful Makes It Easier For Turkish Citizens To Adopt A Bitcoin Standard
Currency debasements aren’t alien to long-suffering Turkish citizens. Until recently, however, the only option they had was to buy gold, or try and invest abroad. Not easy for the common man.
But since the rise of Bitcoin and its ubiquitous and public nature, Turkish people now have a way out of the crumbling Turkish Lira.
We are seeing Bitcoin adoption rise faster in Turkey than almost every other country, as the people there try their best to take power back.
Peer-to-peer Bitcoin marketplace, Paxful announced last week that it was ramping up its operations in Turkey.
Paxful has seen a 274% increase in new registrations in Turkey in the last 12 months, and the Bitcoin marketplace now accepts a Turkish Libra-backed stablecoin, among its more than 300 other ways to buy Bitcoin.
Paxful CEO, Ray Youssef said in the announcement that Turkish citizens had lived with the burden of the Turkish Lira for too long, and it was time for them to have more options.
‘The rising inflation of the Turkish lira has been a major financial burden for Turkish citizens,’ said Youssef. ‘Bitcoin can be used to preserve wealth against instability surrounding the Turkish Lira. … We hope that by entering into the market we will be able to ease some of the financial burdens of its citizens.’
Paxful says it sees ‘massive potential for crypto adoption’ in Turkey, and has formed strategic partnerships with Turkish cryptocurrency exchange Cointral and Turkish Lira-backed stablecoin Bilira (TRYB), as it looks to gain a foothold in the country,.
Bitcoin Adoption in Turkey Rising as Turks Dump Failing Lira
The Turkish Lira to USD has been a historical nightmare for the long-suffering Turks. Generation after generation, we have seen the Lira fall more than most other global currencies.
The Turkish Lira has also been a Guinness World Record Holder – for being useless and worthless.
But at least the good people of Turkey have a way out. Bitcoin adoption is growing faster than anywhere else in the region as Turkish citizens look to rebuild yet again.
And with Paxful offering a Turkish Lira “stablecoin” option to buy Bitcoin, Turks can get rid of their failing currency easier than ever.
It might be a bit late for many older Turks, but at least they have a way out. And with the speed of adoption there, who will bet against turkey becoming the first to adopt a Bitcoin Standard?
Author: Pablo Clarke
Bitcoin FAQs
There is no Bitcoin CEO. There is no central authority that directs or controls Bitcoin. It was created by a pseudonymous programmer Satoshi Nakamoto, but he gave it up to the community, and now all decisions are made by the hundreds of thousands of miners and nodes who work for the Bitcoin network.
There can only ever be 21 million bitcoins. At the time of writing, there are 18,556,856 bitcoins in circulation. There are 6.25 bitcoins minted roughly every 10 minutes, so that’s 900 every day. The amount of newly minted bitcoins is cut in half roughly every 4 years, in what is known as the halvening. The halvening will continue to take place until the last fraction of Bitcoin is minted in around the year 2140.
Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer money that nobody can manipulate. It’s all set in the Bitcoin codebase which is secured by hundreds of thousands of computers all around the world. Bitcoins can be sent by anybody and no third party is need to verify the transactions, and nobody can stop Bitcoins being sent
You can buy Bitcoin in many places in Mexico and it’s always good to do some research, as there are some questionable exchanges. Paxful or CEX are two global platforms that allow buyers to purchase Bitcoin in the local currency.
A Bitcoiner since 2017 and a Bitcoin Maximalist since 2018, Tommy is our main writer and editor at Bitcoin Maximalist. Other than researching and writing about Bitcoin, Tommy loves spending time with his family and supporting his beloved Leeds United.
