On average, 3% of Turks actively used cryptocurrency exchange apps every day in June, a study published by the Bank of International Settlement (BIS) showed on November 14.
At 3%, Turks took another world number one monthly ranking for crypto trading.
Story pic: Average monthly app usage per 100,000 people.
The BIS has compiled data on the daily use of crypto trading apps for 95 countries since 2015.
“Over the period of analysis, crypto exchange app adoption, measured with the number of total downloads per 100,000 people, is highest in Turkey,” the BIS noted.
Turkey officially hosts a population of 83mn registered inhabitants. On November 15, crypto exchanges in Turkey registered a daily transaction volume of $279mn.
Turkey also claimed a world record when an average 5% of Turks traded crypto on each day of December 2021, a month that saw the Turkish lira (TRY) crash from the 13s versus the USD to the 18s within a few days.
| Ranking | Country name | Date | Monthly average daily active users (%) |
| 1 | Turkey | Dec-2021 | 5.05% |
| 2 | Turkey | Nov-2021 | 4.86% |
| 3 | Turkey | May-2021 | 4.51% |
| 4 | Turkey | Jan-2022 | 4.08% |
| 5 | Turkey | Apr-2021 | 4.05% |
| 6 | Turkey | Oct-2021 | 3.77% |
| 7 | Turkey | Feb-2022 | 3.69% |
| 8 | Turkey | Jun-2021 | 3.56% |
| 9 | Turkey | Mar-2022 | 3.55% |
| 10 | Turkey | Apr-2022 | 3.48% |
| 11 | Turkey | May-2022 | 3.41% |
| 12 | Turkey | Aug-2021 | 3.39% |
| 13 | Turkey | Sep-2021 | 3.28% |
| 14 | Turkey | Jul-2021 | 2.95% |
| 15 | Turkey | Jun-2022 | 2.92% |
| 16 | UK | May-2021 | 2.75% |
| 17 | USA | Nov-2021 | 2.64% |
| 18 | Turkey | Mar-2021 | 2.60% |
| 19 | UK | Nov-2021 | 2.55% |
| 20 | USA | May-2021 | 2.48% |
| 21 | UK | Oct-2021 | 2.21% |
| 22 | USA | Oct-2021 | 2.21% |
| 23 | UK | Dec-2021 | 2.15% |
| … | |||
| 117 | Russia | Nov-2021 | 0.83% |
| … | |||
| 271 | Saudi Arabia | Dec-2021 | 0.36% |
| … | |||
| 326 | South Africa | May-2021 | 0.29% |
Table: Each month, Turkey’s rival in trading crypto is essentially Turkey. In May 2021, the UK proved a modest threat to Turkey’s top ranking when 2.8% of Britons traded crypto versus 4.5% of Turks.
Across the bne Intellinews news regions, Russians broke their record when 0.83% of them traded crypto on average each day in November 2021.
Saudi Arabians registered a percentage of 0.36% in December 2021 and South Africans 0.29% in May 2021.
Turkey holds some intriguing world number one rankings. In September, it took top spot from Brazil for the world’s most expensive iPhones, with the launch of the iPhone 14.
The country is also the regional leader in the bne IntelliNews Despair Index. And it posts the highest or second highest official GDP growth figures in the world. It is also competing to top the global inflation league.
Separately, on October 27, the BIS’ triennial central bank survey showed that the daily transaction volume on Turkey’s hard currency markets contracted to $18bn in 2022 from $19bn in 2019, $22bn in 2016 and a record high of $27bn in 2013.
Since 2018, when the lira crashed in a Turkish currency crisis, the country’s government has strived to scale down and locally control the financial markets.
