Cryptocurrency Awareness in Turkey 2021

What’s up, Geckos! 

At CoinGecko, we take pride in being the world’s leading independent cryptocurrency data aggregator. We examine the global cryptocurrency market and scrutinize trends to get better insights into the crypto market.  This time around, we surveyed Turkey users to understand the Turkish crypto market better.

There has been a surge in interest in cryptocurrency in Turkey - especially with Bitcoin’s price climbing to an all-time high of US$58,641 (4,268,002 TL), which is up 62% year-to-date.

 (Chart from Google Trend with the term "kripto para" (cryptocurrency) as of 8th March 2021)

For this study, we surveyed 715 valid responses from Turkish users.

Here are our five key takeaways: 

1. 96% of the respondents own at least one cryptocurrency, mainly university-educated men in their 30s. 
2. 25% of the respondents invested in cryptocurrencies also invested in commodities and stocks, likely to hedge themselves against Turkey’s high inflation.
3. Up to 22% of the users surveyed hold DeFi tokens such as LINK, UNI, AAVE, SNX, and YFI.
4. 61% of the Turkish users choose Binance as their main Turkish Lira (TRY) fiat on-ramp exchanges.
5. Over 79% of Turkish users rely on Twitter and Telegram as sources of information when researching cryptocurrencies.

1. 96% of the respondents own at least one cryptocurrency, mainly university-educated men in their 30s. 

96% of the total valid responses own at least one cryptocurrency. The survey found that the most cryptocurrency users in Turkey are university-educated men between 30-39 years old.

2. 25% of respondents that invested in cryptocurrencies also invested in commodities and stocks. This is likely to hedge themselves against Turkey’s high inflation.

Approximately 25% of respondents invested in cryptocurrencies also invested in commodities and stocks, while only 3% invested in bonds. 

This suggests that cryptocurrency investors have a higher risk tolerance and place greater emphasis on yield generation. Increased inflation in Turkey could be the driving force behind this, where the inflation rate rose to an 18-month high of 15.61% in February 2021. 

Investors are thus seeking ways to hedge against the inflationary backdrop. The small percentage of bond investors further supports the thesis that there is a lack of confidence in the Turkish Lira (TRY).

3. Up to 22% of the users surveyed hold DeFi tokens such as LINK, UNI, AAVE, SNX, and YFI.

Bitcoin is the most heard-of cryptocurrency (94%) amongst Turkish users. However, more Turkish crypto users held Ethereum compared to Bitcoin (56% vs. 50%). 

One of the main reasons behind this could be the recent boom in decentralized finance (DeFi), which requires ETH utilization.  This is reflected in the data, where up to 22% of the users surveyed hold DeFi tokens such as LINK, UNI, AAVE, SNX, and YFI.

While most of these DeFi tokens have some form of governance-related functionalities  (e.g., voting rights on the platform), most users who invest in these tokens are likely speculating rather than participating in governance as voting requires an in-depth understanding of the various protocols. 

4. 61% of the Turkish users choose Binance as their main Turkish Lira (TRY) fiat on-ramp exchanges. 

More than half of the surveyed Turkish cryptocurrency users preferred Binance (61%) and BtcTurk PRO (54%) as their Turkish Lira (TRY) fiat on-ramp exchanges.

The data indicate that Turkish users prefer international exchange platforms over local exchanges. This is likely because more trading pairs are available for trading (e.g., Binance supports 949 trading pairs), and the lower entry barrier (e.g., minimal KYC) to participate in the market. 

Such market demands could also support the reasoning behind the popularity of Uniswap, which despite its higher transaction costs, is utilized by 13% of Turkish cryptocurrency users. Uniswap is a decentralized exchange that allows the onboarding of any cryptocurrencies, particularly newer ones that are not listed on any major centralized exchanges.

Uniswap also has over 2,000 trading pairs, which is more than double that of Binance.

5. Over 79% of Turkish users rely on Twitter and Telegram as a cryptocurrency information source.

84% of the Turkish cryptocurrency users surveyed rely on social media to learn about cryptocurrencies. Twitter and Telegram are the most widely used platforms (85% and 79%, respectively).

Both platforms allow the community to share their thoughts and interact with the project team or other cryptocurrency participants. While crypto information travels much faster on these platforms, users run the risk of being exposed to unreliable information which can be biased or intentionally deceptive. 

Surprisingly, conversations with family and friends is a relatively popular method, with a significant proportion of users (15%) gathering information using this channel.

Conclusion 

Overall, our findings suggest that cryptocurrency awareness and adoption are relatively high in Turkey. The strong positive cryptocurrency sentiment could be due to the country’s high inflation rate (18-month high at 15.61% in February 2021), driving investors towards the global cryptocurrency market in search of greater returns against the inflationary pressure.

We want to express our gratitude to our media partners (Kriptokoin, alp-isik, and kripto-sozluk) for helping us with this Turkish survey.  Additionally, we want to thank all survey participants who have allowed us to better understand Turkish cryptocurrency users’ behavior.

For those who would like to read our survey methodology, you can read it here.

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