Key Takeaways:

• Turkey has proposed a 10% tax on profits made from buying and selling cryptocurrencies.
• Crypto platforms in Turkey would automatically deduct the tax and send it to the government every quarter.
• The move comes as Turkey remains one of the world’s most active crypto markets, with about $200 billion in transactions from July 2024 to June 2025.

Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party, widely known as the AK Party, has submitted a draft law to the Grand National Assembly (Turkey’s legislature), proposing a 10% tax on income from cryptocurrency transactions. The news was first reported by Anadolu Agency on 2 March 2026, the country’s state-run news outlet.

This tax would apply to the profit a person makes when selling or trading a crypto asset for more than its purchase price. For example, if you bought some crypto for $1,000 and later sold it for $1,200, the 10% tax would apply to the $200 profit, not the full $1,200. 

The move is designed to bring clearer rules to how digital assets are taxed and to formally integrate crypto activity into Turkey’s existing tax system. The plan would require crypto platforms to withhold (automatically deduct) this tax every three months.

How the proposed tax would work

Here are the main points of the proposed tax system:

• 10% tax deducted on crypto profits: Platforms regulated under Turkey’s Capital Markets Law, which oversees financial markets and investments, would withhold 10% of income and gains from crypto trades each quarter. This would apply to both companies and individuals, whether they live in Turkey or abroad. The platforms would then submit the collected tax to the government.
• Tax on transactions outside authorized platforms: If someone trades crypto on platforms that are not licensed in Turkey, they would still have to report and pay tax on profits when filing their annual tax return.
• The president can adjust tax rate: The bill gives the country’s president the authority to change the tax rate between 0% and 20% in the future, depending on factors such as the type of token or how long it’s held.
• 0.03% levy on service providers: Crypto platforms that enable users to buy, sell, or transfer crypto assets would pay a 0.03% tax on each transaction they process. Crypto transactions covered by this 0.03% tax would be exempt from the country’s value-added tax (VAT), a general consumption tax added to many goods and services.

Why Turkey? A nation at the center of global crypto activity

Turkey ranks among the world’s most active crypto markets. Chainalysis, a US-based blockchain analytics firm that studies blockchain transaction data, ranked Turkey first in the Middle East and North Africa for crypto transaction volumes in its October 2025 report. The country recorded about $200 billion in crypto activity between July 2024 and June 2025.

Economic conditions have played a major role. Turkey’s annual inflation rate, which measures how much prices have risen over time, peaked at 85.5% in October 2022. At that level, everyday goods became significantly more expensive within months, reducing the purchasing power of savings held in Turkish lira. That said, the inflation has since eased to 31.53% as of February 2026.

With the Turkish lira weakening over several years, many residents have turned to crypto either to try to protect their savings from losing value or to seek higher investment returns. 

The Netherlands’ tax proposal and broader reporting efforts

Turkey is not the only country tightening its approach to crypto taxation. In February 2026, the Dutch House of Representatives approved a bill imposing a 36% tax on annual investment returns, including gains on assets such as crypto, stocks, and bonds, even if those assets have not been sold.

The proposal sparked widespread public backlash and political pressure. On 25 February, 2026, Dutch Finance Minister Eelco Heinen announced that the plan would need further consultations and revisions before it could move forward.

Separately, several countries are preparing to implement the OECD’s Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF), a global system designed to help tax authorities automatically share information about crypto holdings and transactions across borders to improve tax transparency.

Reactions and next steps

The proposal has drawn mixed reactions. Some experts argue that taxing crypto at this stage could slow domestic crypto activity, pushing users to foreign platforms. The government, however, views it as a necessary step to regulate and formalize a rapidly expanding sector.

The draft bill is currently under parliamentary review and could be amended before a final vote. If passed, the new rules would take effect roughly two months after getting published in Turkey’s official legal journal, Resmî Gazete, where new laws are formally announced.