Turkey to grant Masak powers to freeze crypto and bank accounts

Turkey is preparing legislation to give its financial crime watchdog, the Financial Crimes Investigation Board known as Masak, the authority to freeze and restrict access to cryptocurrency and traditional bank accounts as part of a broader effort to curb money laundering and other financial crimes. People familiar with the plans, who requested anonymity because the proposal has not been made public, said the bill would also let Masak impose transaction limits and blacklist wallets suspected of involvement in criminal activity.

Under the proposed measures, Masak would be able to freeze or close accounts across payment systems, banks, electronic money institutions and cryptocurrency exchanges. A key focus is to halt the spread of so called rented accounts, in which individuals are paid to use personal accounts for activities such as illegal gambling, fraud and other illicit transfers. Officials said the proposal is meant to align Turkey’s anti money laundering framework with international recommendations from the Financial Action Task Force.

The bill would extend existing compliance obligations for crypto service providers. New rules would require platforms to collect identifying...