Turkey Confiscates USD 40 Million In Crypto Assets Related To Illegal Gambling. Turkish authorities have reportedly confiscated USD 40 million of cryptocurrency and detained 46 people in an illegal gambling investigation.
The detentions and seizures are part of an investigation into illegal gambling in eight provinces namely Ankara, Batman, Bingol, Kayseri, Kırıkkale, Mus, Van and Yozgat. The suspects allegedly brokered the transfer of illegally obtained funds to crypto accounts of criminal organizations.
Gambling and casino tycoon Halil Falyal was shot dead on February 8 in an armed attack near his home in Kyrenia, a city on Cyprus’ northern coast. He is suspected of leading an illegal gambling business that is under investigation, according to a publication by the Turkish authorities.
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“About USD 40 million of crypto assets, which were detected as being transferred to crypto asset exchanges at home and abroad, were confiscated,” the publication reads, quoted from Bitcoin.com, Tuesday (1/11/2022).
Cryptocurrency worth USD 134.5 million has been transferred to the cryptocurrency accounts of a group of 11 people, including Falyal and his wife.
Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu said the seized $40 million worth of crypto assets may be just the beginning. It is estimated that there are still other crypto assets.
Meanwhile, according to several Turkish news outlets, some of the assets included in the USD 40 million were seized in the form of bitcoin (BTC) and tether (USDT).
Previously, Allied Market Research published a report on Bitcoin’s global payment projections. In the report, Allied Market Research revealed that the global Bitcoin payments market will reach USD 3.7 billion (Rp 57.7 trillion) by 2031.
This number is seen from a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.3 percent from 2022 to 2031. According to the document, operational demands for efficiency and transparency in payment systems, along with growth in data security services and a surge in demand for remittances in developing countries.
This is one of the main factors supporting the growth in the bitcoin payments sector in the years to come.
“Furthermore, the increasing demand for bitcoin among banks, and financial institutions, as well as the untapped potential in developing countries is expected to provide favorable opportunities for the expansion of the bitcoin payments market during the forecast period,” the report said. 2022).
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Sectors Driving Bitcoin Payments
E-commerce transactions are likely to maintain their relevance in the sector, growing by nearly 20.2 percent in 2031, according to the report.
The Asia-Pacific region is expected to continue its market dominance in 2031, although the fastest growth is expected to come from North America, with a CAGR of 18.6 percent over the period.
Turkey Confiscates USD 40 Million In Crypto Assets Related To Illegal Gambling. Referring to the barriers and challenges, the report acknowledges that high deployment costs and low global awareness of Bitcoin usage may hinder the sector’s progress.
Distributed ledger technology has spread from cryptocurrencies to a large number of applications in the finance and government industries.
“However, many people and the financial industry and governments in developing countries such as India, Africa and Australia are less aware of transactions made using bitcoin payments, which is hampering the growth of the bitcoin payments market worldwide,” the report states.
On the other hand, the cryptocurrency bear market has affected the way people pay with crypto, but Bitcoin remains the main means of payment despite the enormous volatility, making up more than 50 percent of all sales on payment service provider BitPay’s platform.
Data reveals sales volume of BTC payments on BitPay peaked at 87 percent in 2021 before declining during a bear market or slumping in 2022.
Previously, bitcoin prices managed to rise 6.1 percent throughout October 2022, this has been a positive month for Bitcoin since July 2022. Throughout mid-2022, Bitcoin continued to decline due to various sentiments, one of which was the Fed’s interest rate hike to tame US inflation.
The cryptocurrency’s biggest price break above USD 20,000 reached last week for the first time in 18 days, driven by liquidation of traders betting on further price declines.
At that moment, traders took advantage of short-term trading and managed to revive the bullish trend in the market. But according to research analysts at CoinbaseInstitutional warned on Friday (28/10/2022) the signals from the price charts look mixed.
“The price movement may not be clear, we don’t know yet if this is a bullish sign or not. We don’t believe the investment narrative has changed,” said Coinbase analysts quoted from CoinDesk, Monday (10/31/2022).
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Investors Wait for Fed Data
Crypto traders, along with investors in the traditional financial sector, are currently looking forward to the Federal Reserve’s next monetary policy meeting, which will conclude on Wednesday local time.
Many analysts and economists believe the Fed will raise interest rates by 75 basis points (0.75 percentage points) this week, but there is growing speculation officials may drop to a slower pace.
Turkey Confiscates USD 40 Million In Crypto Assets Related To Illegal Gambling. This week there will also be a US jobs report for October, which will be released by the Labor Department on Friday. Economists had expected 195,000 jobs added during the month, slowing from September’s 263,000 gain but still a strong pace.
Strong growth may keep pressure on the Fed to keep the ratcheting rate higher.
