The crypto volume market share of the Turkish lira (TRY) has hit an all-time high amid the currency’s depreciation and foreign exchange volatility in the country.
According to a report by crypto research platform Kaiko, the uptick in TRY’s crypto volume market share caused the currency to rally past the euro (EUR), becoming the third largest fiat currency by volume.
TRY Becomes Third Largest Fiat by Volume
Kaiko’s analysis found that TRY’s crypto volume market share hit an all-time high of 19% in early June. The surge was driven by high inflation in the country, which has surpassed 70%, making the TRY one of the worst-performing fiat currencies worldwide.
Usually, currency devaluation and foreign exchange volatility are primary drivers of crypto adoption in developing markets. Kaiko said foreign exchange volatility has increased in the past months due to the record number of elections in 2024 and the growing divergence in monetary policies.
Since April, the financial market has seen the British pound (GBP) rally to its highest level against the EUR in two years. On the other hand, the Japanese yen (JPY) fell to a 30-year low against the United States dollar (USD), while the Mexican peso (MXN) plummeted to its weakest level since October 2023. The common factor among these currencies is high inflation and massive devaluation of their purchasing power.
BTC Hits New ATHs Against TRY
The devaluation of TRY has caused bitcoin (BTC) to hit new all-time highs against the currency in the past few months.
In October 2023, while BTC was worth $34,000, CryptoPotato reported that the cryptocurrency hit an all-time high against the lira, rallying to 979,000 TRY. In February, BTC surged to 1.6 million TRY as the asset rallied above $50,000 on high demand from U.S. investment products.
The primary digital currency hit another all-time high against the lira in March, surging above 2.3 million TRY. At the time of writing, data from TradingView showed that BTC had declined slightly to 2.24 million TRY.
Meanwhile, Kaiko revealed that the rising share of TRY crypto volume can also be attributed to Binance’s recent loss of banking partners. This led to the delisting of GBP and the Australian dollar trading pairs on the crypto exchange, boosting the share of TRY in overall fiat trade volumes.
