Crypto fever is palpable in Istanbul. The realm across the Grand Bazaar hosts a number of small companies the place you possibly can simply stroll in and change money for bitcoin (BTC) or tether (USDT). My colleague said the very first thing she noticed at Istanbul airport was an enormous crypto advert. There are not less than 8 million folks in Turkey engaged in crypto, based on an estimate in a 2022 analysis report by the Turkish crypto change Paribu, one of many largest crypto exchanges in Turkey. Simply final week, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan highlighted the advantages of blockchain expertise, whereas advising younger folks to avoid playing with cryptocurrency. He additionally stated that Turkey needed to be a producer, not a shopper, within the digital property world.