Istanbul Blockchain Week founder Erhan Korhaliller discusses why Turkey is one of the hottest places for crypto

Turkey has been battling high inflation and interest rates for some time now, long before it began to seep into the international market. The official inflation rate in Turkey is currently 78.6% for the month of June; this has led Turkish people to look for alternative assets to preserve and expand their wealth.

Turkey also has a very successful mobile gaming market; in a recent report it was stated that 79% of adults in Turkey play games, so people are used to trading in and out of tokens and coins, and I suspect that Turkey will play a key role in the upcoming wave of web3 gaming that we’ll see over the next few years.

Turkey has a huge amount of retailers; this has led many of the major exchanges to build a Turkish presence, including Binance, Huobi and FTX, and more. In my discussions with exchanges I have regularly been told that Turkey is in the top 2/3 markets for trading on their platforms. In addition to the international exchanges, there are large national exchanges that are currently posting huge volumes, such as BTC Turk and Paribu.

Turkey has always been a huge market for mobile gaming and there continues to be an extremely large gaming community in Turkey that is ripe to get on board web3. We plan to activate it at Istanbul Blockchain Week at our W3E championships, the world’s first Web3 gaming championship.

Other than my Turkish heritage, as the founder of EAK Digital, a web3 creative communication agency since 2017, we have cooperated with many events as their PR partner, in addition to working with high-profile clients such as Binance, XX Network, Theta Network, Neo, etc., as our agency grew, grew our network. with that. In 2019 I decided to explore the Turkish web3 event landscape and I was very disappointed with what I found.

There were no major events taking place in Turkey and the events I could find had dubious speakers and characters in the area usually known for shilling and dubious projects. In addition to this, the Turkish economy struggled while adoption in the country exploded. This inspired me to launch Istanbul Blockchain Week, the premier web3 event in Eurasia, where we invite real builders, educators, thought leaders and top business people both in Turkey and internationally to launch an event that Turkey can truly be proud of.

In Turkey, it is illegal to use crypto as a form of payment, but it is not illegal to trade cryptocurrencies. Apart from this, there have not been clear guidelines for regulation set by the government. President Erdoğan said that the legislation regarding crypto-assets is ready for parliament, with no clear date as to when this will come into effect. We hope for regulations that allow room for innovation and growth to continue in the crypto asset space in Turkey.

What may surprise some is that President Erdogan, after meeting Tesla company CEO Elon Musk, announced that TOGG, the domestic car brand of Turkey, will partner with the Avalanche blockchain. He also stated that Turkey would be one of the leading countries in the Metaverse universe in January of this year.

The week kicks off with a 1-day NFT day dedicated to all things NFT/Metaverse and gaming, this will be a highly curated series of leaders for the NFT space in Turkey and internationally. We then move into the week’s main event, IstanBlock, which is a two-day event that will feature Turkish government speakers, major multinationals and of course web3 heavyweight thought leaders.

Following the main event, we are extremely excited to launch the W3E Championships, the world’s first Web3 gaming championship. We have a dedicated 600-seat E-Sports arena in Istanbul for the finals of the championship, which includes some of the best games in web3. Players must participate in the qualifying tournaments for the championships that take place in August and September before the finalists head to Istanbul for a final epic showdown.

At this year’s Istanbul Blockchain Week, we are focusing on a number of different areas in the industry distributed across the various events. You can expect a whole host of speakers from web3 leaders alongside mainstream web2 brands breaking into web3. It has been fascinating to see the likes of Tiffany’s and Adidas recently expand into web3 and we want to host events that facilitate such partnerships.

In addition, at IstanBlock, the flagship event of Istanbul Blockchain Week, attendees can expect leading figures in web3 and legendary figures such as David Chaum, a legendary cryptographer and pioneer along with top venture capital funds and institutions. We will also have a strong NFT/Gaming/Metaverse presence at NFT Day and the Web3Esports Championships with speakers expected to have worked on some of the biggest AAA+ games to join the conversation.

Istanbul Blockchain Week represents the best opportunity for the international community to enter the widespread Turkish crypto community, building relationships with traders, influencers, thought leaders, governments and large multinational firms looking for partners to break into the web3.

At Istanbul Blockchain Week, we have a variety of events that suit many different profiles of participants. Whether you are an NFT enthusiast, a large corporate/bank moving to web3, or an avid player, there is something for you.

Istanbul is an iconic historical city and the excitement for web3 is palpable, you only need to spend half a day in Istanbul to see how big it is here. Everywhere you look there is a reference to crypto from advertising at the airport, local trams and buses to physical exchange shops outside the famous Grand Bazaar.

The Turkish people are some of the most devoted and excited about web3 and cryptocurrency, and the event is a great opportunity for projects that want to reach a new receptive audience or meet their existing Turkish community.