BTCTurk becomes the first Turkish lira-to-bitcoin exchange

We’ve recently reported the rise of bitcoin in Iran , Afghanistan and Israel , but now another country has jumped on the digital currency bandwagon – Turkey. BTCTurk launched earlier this month, becoming the first company to enable the exchange of Turkish lira for bitcoin and vice versa. Emre Kenci, CTO of BTCTurk, said he and his colleagues started to develop the company in January 2013 having watched interest in bitcoin increase across the globe. He told CoinDesk that BTCTurk has received a “good number” of sign-ups since it launched. “Despite the fact that there is not a single merchant that accepts bitcoin in Turkey, a lot of people are interested in it. The launch of BTCTurk has made bitcoin very convenient for both users and potential merchants in Turkey and we expect the popularity to grow fast.” Kenci said there are currently no laws in Turkey that specifically reg...