Turkey’s economic turmoil drives Bitcoin frenzy | Turkey | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/13/turkeys-economic-turmoil-drives-bitcoin-frenzy
The Turkish lira slumped dramatically last month after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s shock decision to fire the central bank governor, Naci Ağbal. The reserve is now on its fourth governor in less than two years, and the lira has lost half its value since a 2018 currency crisis.
Inflation reached a six-month high in March of 16.19%, well above a 5% target, and unemployment remains high, at 13.4%.
The latest economic turmoil has led to a surge in cryptocurrency trading in the country, with investors hoping to gain from bitcoin’s recent rally and shelter against inflation.
Data from the US researcher Chainalysis analysed by Reuters showed that trading volumes between the start of February and 24 March hit 218bn lira (£19bn) with a spike on the weekend Ağbal was sacked, up from just over 7bn lira in the same period a year earlier. Cryptocurrency worth 23bn lira was traded in the first few days after the shock announcement, the data showed, versus 1bn lira in the same timespan in 2020.