Turkish Lira Falls to Record Low Against Dollar

The Turkish lira (TRY) fell to a record low against the dollar following the surprise arrest of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s rival, Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu.

The currency slumped nearly 41 per U.S. dollar, experiencing a 10% slide in one day. This volatility resulted in a sharp increase in trading volumes in the bitcoin-lira (BTC/TRY) pair on leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance.

Imamoglu’s Republican People’s Party (CHP) described the arrest as an attempt to undermine the will of the people. The party was scheduled to hold a primary election next week, where Imamoglu was widely expected to emerge as the presidential candidate.

On Binance, the BTC/TRY pair registered a notable 93 BTC traded between 7:00 UTC and 8:00 UTC, marking the highest hourly volume in at least a year according to data from TradingView. However, when adjusted for the lira’s exchange rate, BTC was trading at a significant discount compared to prices on Coinbase (COIN).

It is possible that traders sold BTC/TRY to invest in dollar-linked assets like USDT, which is the largest stablecoin. CoinDesk reached out to Binance for comments on this development.

Fiat currency volatility is not a new phenomenon in Turkey and has driven demand for hard assets like gold and alternative assets such as stablecoins and cryptocurrencies. The lira has been consistently depreciating since at least 2017, when it was valued at 3.53 to the dollar.