David Canellis


<p>Turkey’s currency, the lira, has tanked by 25% against the US dollar since April, and by more than 80% over the past five years. Memecoin PEPE has apparently offered salvation to some.</p>



<p>Stablecoins like tether (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/usdt">USDT</a>) — and even bitcoin (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/btc">BTC</a>) — have historically been <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-hedge-during-ukraine-war">obvious hedge picks</a>, at least in terms of crypto.</p>



<p>But over the past two months, lira holders on Binance have triggered $682 million worth of <a href="https://blockworks.co/price/pepe">PEPE</a> trades, ranking the froggy joke coin fourth for lira volume on the platform across that period.</p>



<p>Bitcoin, which came in third place, saw only one-fifth more volume over that time. Ether (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/eth">ETH</a>) came a distant seventh with $223 million.</p>



<p>Dollar-pegged tokens USDT and Binance’s <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/what-does-busd-mean-for-defi">soon-to-be-defunct</a> branded stablecoin <a href="https://blockworks.co/price/busd">BUSD</a> were the most traded between Apr. 26 and Jun. 26, with $5.2 billion and $1 billion, respectively.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Blockworks looked at the 97 lira markets currently hosted by Binance for the purposes of this analysis, based on TradingView data.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Some volume may be attributed to market makers and other high-frequency crypto trading algorithms. Other exchanges servicing lira trades include BTCTurk and Bitfinex.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-flourish wp-block-embed-flourish"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<iframe class="wp-embedded-content" sandbox="allow-scripts" security="restricted" title="Interactive or visual content" src="https://flo.uri.sh/visualisation/14259072/embed#?secret=iKSNf4Dkkq" data-secret="iKSNf4Dkkq" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" height="575" width="700"></iframe>
</div><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"><em>PEPE presented an out for more risk-tolerant lira traders on Binance</em></figcaption></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Still, why so much PEPE for Turkish lira traders?&nbsp;</h2>



<p>A weird wrinkle in the universe meant that PEPE — which had sunk up to 80% in the weeks following its May record high — bounced hard as the Turkish lira crashed to new record lows this month.</p>



<p>Turkish lira holders clearly sought to capitalize on PEPE’s recovery in the days leading up to the lira’s most-recent crashes. Binance’s PEPE-lira volumes spiked to $41 million last Wednesday (Jun. 21) as PEPE more than doubled, up from $9 million one day earlier. That worked out to be about 37% of global PEPE volume, per CoinGecko.</p>



<p>The Turkish central bank <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/06/22/turkeys-central-bank-hikes-interest-rate-to-15percent-in-dramatic-u-turn-to-tackle-40percent-inflation.html">hiked</a> interest rates from 8.5% to 15% the next day (Jun. 22), sending the lira downward 7% against the US dollar. Meanwhile, Lira-PEPE volumes jumped another 50%, reaching $61.5 million — more than double bitcoin’s lira volume.</p>



<p>PEPE was second only to USDT on that day for Binance’s lira traders, making up 12% of total lira volumes. Overall, Binance processed more than half a billion dollars in Turkish fiat trade on Jun. 22.</p>



<p>Whether lira holders actually intended to hedge against devaluation with PEPE remains unclear.&nbsp; Still, PEPE-lira volumes also spiked on Binance earlier in the month, on Jun. 7, when the lira <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/07/business/turkey-lira-erdogan.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">slipped</a> 7% after its newly-elected government flagged intent to relax stabilization measures.&nbsp;</p>



<p>PEPE was the fifth-most traded cryptocurrency with lira on that day, with $11.9 million, behind peer-to-peer software engineering token radicle (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/rad" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">RAD</a>), BTC, BUSD and USDT.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-flourish wp-block-embed-flourish"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<iframe class="wp-embedded-content" sandbox="allow-scripts" security="restricted" title="Interactive or visual content" src="https://flo.uri.sh/visualisation/14280293/embed#?secret=axviOMbeNn" data-secret="axviOMbeNn" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" height="575" width="700"></iframe>
</div><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"><em>Click the boxes to select different time frames</em></figcaption></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Fan tokens also a big hit</h2>



<p>In total, Binance has reported handling $89 billion in lira-crypto trade volumes over the past year, with another memecoin, shiba inu (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/shib">SHIB</a>), the fourth-most traded at $3.1 billion, ahead of ETH’s $2.5 billion.&nbsp;</p>



<p><a href="https://blockworks.co/price/santos" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">SANTOS</a>, the fan token for the Brazilian football club of the same name, trailed just behind ether with $2.47 billion, followed by apex joke token dogecoin (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/doge" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">DOGE</a>).&nbsp;</p>



<ul>
<li>36% of Binance’s lira volume over the past year featured stablecoins.</li>



<li>11% involved bitcoin or ether.</li>



<li>6.5% was memecoins (DOGE, SHIB, <a href="https://blockworks.co/price/floki" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">FLOKI</a> or PEPE).</li>
</ul>



<p>In fact, fan tokens seem to be popular among Turkish lira holders. <a href="https://blockworks.co/price/alpine" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ALPINE</a> (the F1 racing team), <a href="https://blockworks.co/price/porto" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">PORTO</a> (FC Porto) and <a href="https://blockworks.co/price/lazio" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">LAZIO</a> (SS Lazio) were all in the top 20 for lira volume on Binance over the past year.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Impressive, considering those all have market caps under $20 million. The lira trade for those fan tokens on Binance respectively contributed between 22% and 37% of global volumes (as reported by CoinGecko) over the year, during which time they’ve returned between 1% and -24%.</p>



<p>Chiliz (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/chz">CHZ</a>), the native token for <a href="https://blockworks.co/price/chz" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">fan token platform Socios</a>, came in ninth over the year, with almost $1.7 billion.</p>



<p>So, aside from stablecoins, have any of the most traded cryptocurrencies against the lira on Binance actually hedged against currency devaluation?&nbsp;</p>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-flourish wp-block-embed-flourish"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<iframe class="wp-embedded-content" sandbox="allow-scripts" security="restricted" title="Interactive or visual content" src="https://flo.uri.sh/visualisation/14280411/embed#?secret=Yvxbtbr59t" data-secret="Yvxbtbr59t" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" height="575" width="700"></iframe>
</div><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"><em>Only a small set of the most traded cryptocurrencies against the lira have gone up</em></figcaption></figure>



<p>Narrowing the scope to just the top 20 most traded tokens shows that on average, those cryptocurrencies jumped around 12%.</p>



<p>But 39 out of the 95 fell more than 36% over the past year — performing worse than the lira against the US dollar — including algorand (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/algo" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ALGO</a>), <a href="https://blockworks.co/price/near" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">NEAR</a> and solana (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/sol" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">SOL</a>).&nbsp;</p>



<p>That works out to be around a 40% success rate at hedging against lira’s devaluation via Binance.</p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



<p><strong>Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire">Subscribe to the Empire newsletter</a>.</strong></p>


Turkish traders piled into PEPE and bitcoin as lira collapsed

Sam Reynolds

<div id="highlights-block_61cb3177774ee" class="highlights">
        <ul>
                <li>The Turkish lira has depreciated by nearly 34% this year as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s plan to stabilize the economy backfired</li>
                <li>Authorities are looking to clamp down on crypto after continued interest from Turks as a way to preserve wealth in the face of a weakening lira</li>
            </ul>
    
</div>



<p>Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has <a href="https://abcgazetesi.com/erdogan-kripto-para-yasasi-hazir-yakinda-gecikmeden-meclise-gonderecegiz-412268" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced</a> that a long-awaited bill regulating digital assets is ready, according to reports in local media. The contents of the bill have not been made public, but it&#8217;s expected to be hostile to digital assets, which have been growing in popularity in Turkey as the value of the country’s lira currency has slumped in recent months.&nbsp;</p>



<p>In March, <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/turkish-bitcoin-interest-spikes-after-lira-devaluation-capital-controls/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Blockworks reported</a> that Google searches for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies were up by nearly 500%. In April, <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/turkey-bans-crypto-as-form-of-payment-bitcoin-price-drops/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Turkey banned crypto</a> as a form of payment. It remains legal to hold the asset although regulators frequently cite crypto as a form of evasion for capital controls and taxes.&nbsp;</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Turkey’s out-of-control inflation&nbsp;</strong></h3>



<p>Ergodan’s administration has taken a non-conventional approach to monetary policy, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-12-24/erdogan-says-turkey-won-t-again-tame-inflation-with-rate-hikes" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">refusing to raise interest rates</a> to combat surging inflation, instead preferring to maintain low rates in order to finance cheap borrowing.&nbsp;<br><br>“We’ve put aside the classical understanding of economics that keeps inflation under control with high interest rates,” Bloomberg quoted Erdogan as saying. “We will witness a different economic climate through summer once the financial stability is ensured.”</p>



<p>Inflation, though, has hit record levels, clocking in at 26% in November according to published statistics.&nbsp;</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Market remains stable</strong></h3>



<p><a href="https://www.tradingview.com/x/bsCvnc50/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">On-chain data</a> from Turkey suggests the market doesn’t expect the bill Erdogan is readying for parliament to be overly restrictive.&nbsp;</p>



<p>The valuation of the Turkish lira against the stablecoin tether is continuing to track the official TRY-USD exchange rate, suggesting traders aren’t trying to dump tether before local exchanges and their ramps get shut down.&nbsp;</p>



<p>BTCTurkPro, one of the largest domestic exchanges, also reports steady volume, clearing an average of $300 million a day in transactions <a href="https://www.coingecko.com/en/exchanges/btcturk-pro#statistics" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according to CoinGecko</a>. Volume spiked on December 21 to nearly $1 billion as the lira briefly rallied when Erdogan <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/21/turkish-lira-whipsaws-from-historic-low-after-erdogan-announces-rescue-plan-.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced a plan</a> to protect depositors against currency fluctuations leading many traders to take profit against a recovered lira.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Unrelated to the upcoming crypto bill, Binance, which has a strong presence in Turkey and offers lira-denominated trading pairs, has been <a href="https://www.aa.com.tr/tr/gundem/turkiyede-kripto-varlik-platformlarina-yonelik-ilk-ceza-geldi/2457158" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">fined $750,000 by local authorities</a> for having insufficient money laundering controls in place.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Erdogan <a href="https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/why-turkey-is-now-turkiye-and-why-that-matters-52602" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">has also announced</a> a change in the country’s name from Turkey to Turkiye, explaining that it reflects “the culture, civilisation, and values of the Turkish nation in the best way.”</p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



<p><strong>Get the day’s top crypto news and insights delivered to your inbox every evening.&nbsp;<a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/newsletter/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Subscribe to Blockworks’ free newsletter</a>&nbsp;now.</strong></p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>


Cryptocurrencies Stable As Turkey Eyes Digital-Asset Regulation

Sam Martin

<div id="highlights-block_6070167e3d7d3ae75bf84ac6fdf0d8b9" class="highlights">
        <ul>
                <li>AVAX explodes higher despite bearish price action in the broader crypto market</li>
                <li>BTC trades near an all-time high when measured against the Turkish Lira</li>
            </ul>
    
</div>



<p>AVAX, the native token to the layer-1 blockchain Avalanche, has rallied 27.5% over the past week and is currently trading near $110, according to data from <a href="https://www.coingecko.com/en" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Coingecko</a>.</p>



<p>Avalanche is leading the market in TVL growth, decentralized finance (DeFi) users and <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/defi">DeFi</a> revenue as developer activity on the blockchain continues to grow.</p>



<p>Bitcoin (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/btc">BTC</a>) is also nearing all-time highs when measured against the Turkish Lira (TRY).</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Latest in Macro:</strong></h3>



<ul>
<li>S&amp;P 500: 4,620, -1.03%</li>



<li>NASDAQ: 15,169, -0.07%</li>



<li>Gold: $1,797, -0.05%</li>



<li>WTI Crude Oil: $70.45, -2.67%</li>



<li>10-Year Treasury: 1.412%, -0.01%</li>
</ul>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Latest in Crypto:</strong></h3>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/price/btc">BTC</a>: $46,221, -0.80%</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/price/eth">ETH</a>: $3,859, -0.70%</li>



<li>ETH/BTC: 0.0833, +0.29%</li>



<li>BTC.D: 40.82%, -0.42%</li>
</ul>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">AVAX rallies</h3>



<p>According to its&nbsp;<a href="https://whitepaper.io/document/603/avalanche-whitepaper" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">whitepaper</a>, Avalanche is a high-performance, scalable, customizable and secure blockchain platform. It targets three broad use cases:</p>



<ul>
<li>Building application-speciﬁc blockchains, spanning permissioned (private) and permissionless (public) deployments.</li>



<li>Building and launching highly scalable and decentralized applications (dapps).</li>



<li>Building arbitrarily complex digital assets with custom rules, covenants and riders (smart assets).</li>
</ul>



<p><a href="https://blockworks.co/price/avax">AVAX</a> now boasts $11.6 billion in total value locked (TVL). Aave and Trader Joe are the two largest dapps when measured by TVL, according to data from <a href="https://defillama.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">DeFi Llama</a>.</p>


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1018" height="327" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screen-Shot-2021-12-17-at-3.21.28-PM.png" alt="" class="wp-image-12849" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screen-Shot-2021-12-17-at-3.21.28-PM.png?w=1018 1018w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screen-Shot-2021-12-17-at-3.21.28-PM.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screen-Shot-2021-12-17-at-3.21.28-PM.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screen-Shot-2021-12-17-at-3.21.28-PM.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screen-Shot-2021-12-17-at-3.21.28-PM.png?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screen-Shot-2021-12-17-at-3.21.28-PM.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screen-Shot-2021-12-17-at-3.21.28-PM.png?w=80 80w" sizes="(max-width: 1018px) 100vw, 1018px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: DeFi Llama</figcaption></figure></div>


<p>TVL is a useful metric to track but can be misleading when viewing it independently. It can be helpful to look at user growth, revenue growth and debt volume growth in tandem with TVL to ensure it&#8217;s not just incentive programs and yield farmers inorganically driving the number higher.</p>



<p>Recently released analysis by <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/messari">Messari</a>, which measures the fastest growing DeFi ecosystems from Oct. 15 to Nov. 15, indicates that AVAX leads in a number of categories. </p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="576" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/usage-avax-1024x576.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-12852" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/usage-avax-1024x576.jpg?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/usage-avax-1024x576.jpg?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/usage-avax-1024x576.jpg?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/usage-avax-1024x576.jpg?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/usage-avax-1024x576.jpg?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/usage-avax-1024x576.jpg?w=464 464w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/usage-avax-1024x576.jpg?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/usage-avax-1024x576.jpg?w=80 80w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/usage-avax-1024x576.jpg?w=1600 1600w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: Messari</figcaption></figure>



<p>Total transactions on Avalanche continues to grow at a rapid pace, according to data from <a href="https://pro.nansen.ai/multichain/avalanche" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nansen</a>, as there were more than 700,000 on Friday.</p>


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="406" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screen-Shot-2021-12-17-at-3.22.16-PM-1024x406.png" alt="" class="wp-image-12850" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screen-Shot-2021-12-17-at-3.22.16-PM-1024x406.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screen-Shot-2021-12-17-at-3.22.16-PM-1024x406.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screen-Shot-2021-12-17-at-3.22.16-PM-1024x406.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screen-Shot-2021-12-17-at-3.22.16-PM-1024x406.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screen-Shot-2021-12-17-at-3.22.16-PM-1024x406.png?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screen-Shot-2021-12-17-at-3.22.16-PM-1024x406.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screen-Shot-2021-12-17-at-3.22.16-PM-1024x406.png?w=80 80w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screen-Shot-2021-12-17-at-3.22.16-PM-1024x406.png?w=1075 1075w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: Nansen</figcaption></figure></div>


<p>Developer activity is also growing on Avalanche. A Delphi Digital report <a href="https://members.delphidigital.io/reports/prices-rebound-avalanche-dev-activity-dex-volumes/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">notes</a> that the number of unique Contract Chain&nbsp;(C-Chain) developers have doubled from 200 to 400 over the past month. </p>



<p>&#8220;With the recent&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/_patrickogrady/status/1471223325045100545?s=20">launch of AvaLabs’ Subnet-EVM</a>, it seems reasonable to expect the number of developers to continue multiplying,&#8221; Delphi Digital wrote in the post. &#8220;The Subnet-EVM eases the deployment of EVM-compatible blockchains using a single JSON file, reportedly taking just 90 seconds.&#8221;</p>


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="656" height="340" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screen-Shot-2021-12-17-at-3.28.14-PM.png" alt="" class="wp-image-12851" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screen-Shot-2021-12-17-at-3.28.14-PM.png?w=656 656w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screen-Shot-2021-12-17-at-3.28.14-PM.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screen-Shot-2021-12-17-at-3.28.14-PM.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screen-Shot-2021-12-17-at-3.28.14-PM.png?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screen-Shot-2021-12-17-at-3.28.14-PM.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screen-Shot-2021-12-17-at-3.28.14-PM.png?w=80 80w" sizes="(max-width: 656px) 100vw, 656px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: Delphi Digital</figcaption></figure></div>


<h3 class="wp-block-heading">BTC nears ATH when denominated in the Turkish Lira</h3>



<p>Turkey is among the top 30 adopters of bitcoin when measured by the percentage of the population who own digital assets, according to <a href="https://triple-a.io/crypto-ownership/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Triple A research</a>. The research states that about 2.7 million Turkish citizens own crypto, representing almost 3% of the country&#8217;s population. </p>



<p>&#8220;As Turkey cut their interest rate in 2021, their inflation kept accelerating, and their currency accelerated its devaluation against the dollar.&#8221; <a href="https://twitter.com/LynAldenContact/status/1471581982744363019?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">wrote</a> Lyn Alden, founder of Lyn Alden investment Strategy. &#8220;The [Modern Monetary Theory] argument is that if they go to zero, inflation will reverse, even though it worsened as they reduced rates from 19% to 14%. Turkey&#8217;s issue is they have too much USD debt relative to their FX reserves, and nobody wants to hold the lira with negative real rates.&#8221;</p>


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="718" height="900" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Lira-v-interest-rates.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-12853" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Lira-v-interest-rates.jpg?w=718 718w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Lira-v-interest-rates.jpg?w=239 239w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Lira-v-interest-rates.jpg?w=205 205w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Lira-v-interest-rates.jpg?w=208 208w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Lira-v-interest-rates.jpg?w=175 175w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Lira-v-interest-rates.jpg?w=64 64w" sizes="(max-width: 718px) 100vw, 718px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: @Financial Times</figcaption></figure></div>


<p>Turkish citizens seeking alternative places to park their cash comes amid the country&#8217;s current <a href="https://www.reuters.com/markets/rates-bonds/turkish-lira-trades-near-record-low-after-rate-cut-fuels-slide-2021-12-17/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">currency crisis</a>.</p>



<p>While BTC has struggled over the past three months when denominated in the USD, BTC/TRY investors have seen their purchasing power increase over that same time frame. BTC/TRY has returned 103% over the past 3 months and is trading near an all-time high, according to data from <a href="https://www.tradingview.com/chart/5GPs0hRQ/?symbol=BINANCE%3ABTCTRY" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Trading View</a>.</p>


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="684" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/BTCTRY_2021-12-17_15-55-11-1024x684.png" alt="" class="wp-image-12878" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/BTCTRY_2021-12-17_15-55-11-1024x684.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/BTCTRY_2021-12-17_15-55-11-1024x684.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/BTCTRY_2021-12-17_15-55-11-1024x684.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/BTCTRY_2021-12-17_15-55-11-1024x684.png?w=385 385w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/BTCTRY_2021-12-17_15-55-11-1024x684.png?w=391 391w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/BTCTRY_2021-12-17_15-55-11-1024x684.png?w=328 328w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/BTCTRY_2021-12-17_15-55-11-1024x684.png?w=80 80w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/BTCTRY_2021-12-17_15-55-11-1024x684.png?w=1161 1161w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: Trading View</figcaption></figure></div>


<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs)</h3>



<p>Trading data from <a href="https://opensea.io/rankings" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">OpenSea</a> and <a href="https://solanalysis.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Solanalysis</a> of some of the top Solana and Ethereum projects can be found below:</p>


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="330" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screen-Shot-2021-12-17-at-4.05.19-PM-1024x330.png" alt="" class="wp-image-12879" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screen-Shot-2021-12-17-at-4.05.19-PM-1024x330.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screen-Shot-2021-12-17-at-4.05.19-PM-1024x330.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screen-Shot-2021-12-17-at-4.05.19-PM-1024x330.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screen-Shot-2021-12-17-at-4.05.19-PM-1024x330.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screen-Shot-2021-12-17-at-4.05.19-PM-1024x330.png?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screen-Shot-2021-12-17-at-4.05.19-PM-1024x330.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screen-Shot-2021-12-17-at-4.05.19-PM-1024x330.png?w=80 80w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screen-Shot-2021-12-17-at-4.05.19-PM-1024x330.png?w=1233 1233w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Top Ethereum Projects</figcaption></figure></div>

<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="288" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screen-Shot-2021-12-17-at-4.05.27-PM-1024x288.png" alt="" class="wp-image-12880" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screen-Shot-2021-12-17-at-4.05.27-PM-1024x288.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screen-Shot-2021-12-17-at-4.05.27-PM-1024x288.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screen-Shot-2021-12-17-at-4.05.27-PM-1024x288.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screen-Shot-2021-12-17-at-4.05.27-PM-1024x288.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screen-Shot-2021-12-17-at-4.05.27-PM-1024x288.png?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screen-Shot-2021-12-17-at-4.05.27-PM-1024x288.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screen-Shot-2021-12-17-at-4.05.27-PM-1024x288.png?w=80 80w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screen-Shot-2021-12-17-at-4.05.27-PM-1024x288.png?w=1199 1199w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Top Solana Projects </figcaption></figure></div>


<p>If you made it this far, thanks for reading! I am looking forward to catching up on Monday.</p>



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