Al-Monitor, the Middle East news source, reported recently that politicians in Turkey are planning to launch state-level cryptocurrencies.
It was reported that Ahmet Kenan Tanrikulu, Vice-Chairman and former Minister of Industry of the Turkish Nationalist Movement, drafted a report proposing a state-supported cryptocurrency called Turkcoin.
Although technical details remain unclear, lawmakers claim the Turkish currency will be designed to act as a token of assets-backed securities, which he believes will be less risky than existing cryptocurrencies.
The report said the basket will include large publicly traded wealth funds such as Turkish Airlines, Istanbul Stock Exchange and Turkish Telecom.
Tanrikulu told Al-Monitor:
'The world is moving towards a new digital system, and Turkey should create its own digital system and currency as soon as possible.'
Elsewhere in the report, Tanrikulu also called for more explicit regulation of cryptocurrencies to contain the market, arguing that the absence of a legal framework for cryptocurrencies in Turkey could result in unprotected legal activity, and the illegal use of cryptocurrencies is not regulated by law control.
'We can only generate revenue by encrypting money markets, especially bitcoin, after we introduce incentives to assess various risks, in which case Turkey needs a bitcoin exchange and legislation to regulate it.'
In a few weeks after Tanrikulu made the comment, the Turkish Deputy Prime Minister told CNN Turkey during his interview that his administration will seek to launch a nationwide cryptocurrency.
Only days before Turkey considered launching its own cryptocurrency, Venezuela had just started its own sales of tokens, and President Nicos Maduro said Venezuela had made $ 735 million on the first day of pre-sale.