July 02, 2024
As is known, the Law No. 7518 on the Amendment of the Capital Markets Law was published in the Official Gazette dated 02.07.2024 and numbered 32590 and entered into force. With the said regulation, crypto asset service providers operating or to operate in our country have been placed under the regulatory and supervisory authority of our Board within the scope of the Capital Markets Law No. 6362 (Law). Within the scope of the said regulation, any environment where one or more of the activities of buying and selling, exchanging, transferring crypto assets and the custody service required thereof, as well as the storage and management of crypto assets or private keys that provide the right to transfer these assets from the wallet are carried out as a regular occupation, commercial or professional activity are within the scope of this Law, and those who fail to fulfill the obligations specified in the Law will be subject to action pursuant to Articles 99/A and 109/A of the Law. In the first paragraph of the Temporary Article 11 added to Law No. 6362 with the regulation; “Those who were carrying out crypto asset service providing activities on the date of entry into force of the Law establishing this article must apply to the Board with the documents to be determined by the Board within one month from the date of entry into force and submit a declaration that they will make the necessary applications to obtain an activity permit by meeting the conditions to be stipulated in the secondary regulations to be issued in accordance with the provisions of Articles 35/B and 35/C of the Law or that they will make a liquidation decision within three months without harming the rights and interests of the customers and that they will not accept new customers during the liquidation process. Those who want to start their activities after the Law establishing this article enters into force must apply to the Board before starting their activities and declare that they will make the necessary applications to obtain an activity permit by meeting the conditions to be stipulated in the secondary regulations.Applications made to the Board within the scope of this paragraph are announced on the Board's website. Institutions that will be liquidated announce this situation on their websites and also notify their customers via e-mail, text message, telephone and similar means of communication." Within this framework; Those who are conducting crypto asset service providing activities as of 02.07.2024 and intend to continue to conduct them are required to submit to our Board in writing, together with the information, documents and explanations in Annex/1 and Annex/2, and their declarations in accordance with the first paragraph of Temporary Article 11, until 02.08.2024. Those who are conducting crypto asset service providing activities as of 02.07.2024 and who will make a liquidation decision because they do not intend to continue this activity, are required to submit to our Board in writing, together with their declarations that they will make a liquidation decision and will not accept new customers during the liquidation process, together with their explanations on how they will conduct the liquidation process in the form in Annex/2, until 02.08.2024. In this context, institutions that will be required to make a liquidation decision by 02.10.2024 pursuant to the Law shall, without prejudice to the relevant provisions of the Turkish Commercial Code No. 6102, announce this situation on their websites and also notify their customers via e-mail, text messages, telephone and similar means of communication. The responsibility for the proper communication of notifications to customers belongs to the institutions that will be liquidated. Institutions that wish to commence operations after the effective date of the Law but before the secondary regulations to be issued by our Board come into force are also required to submit their declarations in accordance with the first paragraph of the Temporary Article 11 together with the information, documents and explanations in Annex/1 and Annex/2 to our Board in writing before they commence their operations.Applications made to the Board will be announced under the “Institutions/Crypto Asset Service Providers” tab on our Board’s website as two separate lists, the “List of Those in Operation” and the “List of Those Making Liquidation Declarations”, and the current lists can be accessed at https://spk.gov.tr/kurumlar/kripto-varlik-hizmet-saglayicilar. Incomplete or insufficient applications will not be included in the “List of Those in Operation”. After the secondary regulations to be issued by our Board in accordance with the Law enter into force, any institution not included in this list will not be able to conduct any activity without obtaining permission from the Board. The institutions on this list will also continue their activities and apply for an operating permit under the conditions to be specified in the secondary regulations. Actions may be taken against those who have not applied to our Board in the manner stated above and by the specified date, in accordance with the provisions of Articles 99/A and 109/A of the Law. Failure of these institutions to fulfill the transfer requests of customers who have accounts in institutions that prefer to go into liquidation or do not apply to the Board within the specified period will constitute the crime of unauthorized crypto asset service provider activity within the scope of Article 109/A, and it is useful to remind that these persons may be punished with imprisonment from three to five years and a judicial fine from five thousand days to ten thousand days. The first paragraph of Article 99/A of the Law states that “The activity carried out by platforms located abroad towards persons resident in Turkey or the provision of an activity prohibited regarding crypto assets to persons resident in Turkey within the scope of the regulations to be made by the Board is also considered unauthorized crypto asset service provider. In the event that any of the following situations exist: opening a business in Turkey by platforms established abroad, creating a Turkish website, or engaging in promotional and marketing activities regarding crypto asset services offered directly and/or through persons or institutions established in Turkey, the activities are deemed to be directed towards persons established in Turkey.Additional criteria for determining that the activities are directed to persons resident in Turkey may be determined by the Board.” Within this framework, crypto asset service providers resident abroad must terminate their activities directed to persons resident in Turkey as specified in the first paragraph of Article 99/A of the Law by 02.10.2024 at the latest. After this date, the provisions of Articles 99/A and 109/A of the Law will be applied to those who continue to operate to persons resident in Turkey as specified. The activities of ATMs and similar electronic transaction devices resident in Turkey that enable customers to convert crypto assets into cash or cash into crypto assets and to transfer crypto assets must also be terminated by 02.10.2024 at the latest. The provisions of Articles 99/A and 109/A of the Law will be applied to those who continue to operate after this date and those who enable this. $BTC $ETH $SOL
