FSB Peer Review Urges Türkiye to Build a Stablecoin Regime and Finish Licensing Crypto Providers

The Financial Stability Board (FSB) published its second Peer Review of Türkiye on 11 November 2026, and it calls on Turkish authorities to set up a dedicated regime for stablecoin issuers, finish moving crypto-asset service providers (CASPs) from interim registration to full licences on a defined schedule, and strengthen supervision, enforcement and cross-border cooperation. The review credits Türkiye with "meaningful progress" since the FSB's 2025 thematic review, which found the country had a crypto framework but nothing in place for stablecoins.

The report is a peer assessment, not a binding decision: it creates no new legal obligations for firms. It does, however, set out the FSB's view of where Türkiye's regime falls short of the global framework the FSB finalised in July 2023, and it records official details of the licensing process that the Capital Markets Board (CMB) runs. Türkiye volunteered for the review in 2026, which focuses on financial stability rather than consumer protection, market integrity or anti-money laundering.

What the Review Found in Türkiye's Crypto Market

The FSB describes the Turkish market as fast-growing and largely retail. Citing data from the authorities and other sources, the report says Türkiye saw nearly USD 200 billion in annual crypto transactions in 2025, and that there are over 7.1 million crypto-asset accounts linked to 5.3 million entities, though only 51% have a positive balance. Holdings registered with Turkish CASPs were about USD 3 billion, against average daily crypto trading of roughly USD 0.5 billion. Crypto-assets are held mostly for speculation, while stablecoins serve as a store of value and a hedge against lira depreciation and inflation. BiLira (TRYB) is the only stablecoin issued by a domestic entity, with a market capitalisation of about USD 5.9 million.

The legal basis is the July 2024 amendment that brought crypto-asset services within the Capital Markets Law and gave the CMB its remit over CASPs. The review's timeline shows a three-month application window between March and June 2025, a published list of "Actively Operating" platforms allowed to continue under transitional arrangements, the first on-site inspections completed in the third quarter of 2025, and weekly reporting to the central crypto registry (KVMKS) operational in early 2026. Authorisation deadlines were extended at the end of March 2026, with authorities citing limited custodian availability and backlogs in independent ICT audits, and exiting firms must file weekly wind-down returns showing client assets being transferred.

Licensed platforms may keep at most 5% of client crypto-assets in their own wallets, with the rest held by an authorised depository institution, and stablecoin transfers between crypto accounts are capped at USD 3,000 a day and USD 50,000 a month, subject to time-bound exceptions. Banks cannot run trading platforms directly and need a separate CMB-licensed subsidiary. As of late June 2026, six banks held preliminary approvals from the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BRSA) and the CMB had deemed three banks "suitable" for crypto custody, but none had yet started offering the service. The FSB notes that the full bank authorisation sequence has taken around 12 to 18 months in practice.

The Five Recommendations

First, Türkiye should keep prioritising full implementation of the FSB's crypto-asset and global stablecoin recommendations. Second, it should build a systematic, forward-looking way to monitor financial stability risks, including key risk indicators and data collection that combines on-chain and off-chain analysis.

Third, the authorities should complete the transition from interim registration to licensing on a defined schedule and tell applicants the expected timeframe for each stage. They should also engage audit firms on common findings, clear bottlenecks in the review pipeline, make disclosures such as proof-of-reserve presentation and incident reporting more consistent, improve KVMKS reporting, and review how banks' crypto exposures and CASP prudential requirements are treated, including alignment with the Basel Committee's crypto-asset exposure standard.

Fourth, Türkiye should introduce issuer requirements for fiat-referenced stablecoins covering redemption rights, stabilisation mechanisms and prudential safeguards, and clarify how they interact with payments and e-money law, while keeping safeguards against foreign-currency stablecoins being used for domestic payments. Foreign-issued stablecoins distributed through Turkish CASPs should face targeted expectations on reserves and transparency, backed by cooperation with the issuer's home authority. Fifth, domestic and international information-sharing arrangements should be developed and reviewed periodically.

Who Is Affected and What Comes Next

For crypto platforms and custodians still operating under Türkiye's transitional arrangements, the most direct message is the FSB's call for a defined licensing schedule with published timeframes. Stablecoin issuers and the exchanges that list them are affected by the recommendation for a dedicated regime. The report notes that a recent amendment to the central bank's e-money regulation allows certain currency-pegged stablecoins to be treated as equivalent to e-money, but that implementing rules from the Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye have not yet been issued, while the 2021 ban on using crypto-assets for payments remains in place.

The FSB does not set deadlines for the recommendations. Under its peer review programme, member jurisdictions report on the steps they have taken in response. Any new stablecoin rules, licensing timetable or changes to CASP requirements would come from Turkish legislation or from the CMB, the BRSA and the central bank.