The Turkish lira has become so volatile that Turks have ditched the local currency for assets with an even riskier reputation: cryptocurrencies.
While the lira unraveled against the dollar in the last quarter of 2021, cryptocurrency trading volumes using the lira leapt to an average $1.8 billion a day across three exchanges, according to blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis. Those volumes are still modest compared with the results of a 2019 survey by the Bank for International Settlements that found roughly $71 billion of lira transactions a day, but even so are more than any of the preceding five quarters.
