{"id":296408,"date":"2023-02-07T14:15:52","date_gmt":"2023-02-07T14:15:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cryptoslate.com\/?p=296408"},"modified":"2023-02-07T17:20:14","modified_gmt":"2023-02-07T17:20:14","slug":"turkish-watchdog-stretches-rules-and-allows-crypto-wallets-to-collect-aid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cryptoslate.com\/turkish-watchdog-stretches-rules-and-allows-crypto-wallets-to-collect-aid\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkish watchdog stretches rules and allows crypto wallets to collect aid"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Turkish singer known for his charitable personality, Haluk Levent<\/a>, reached<\/a> out to the country's financial watchdog (MASAK<\/a>) and convinced them to allow collecting crypto donations to help with earthquake relief.<\/p>\n

Stretching rules<\/h2>\n

Turkish crypto Twitter has been calling out<\/a> to crypto influencers who were transferring the message<\/a> to the Turkish government, asking for a crypto wallet for donations.<\/p>\n

Opening a crypto wallet to collect donations is not currently legal in the country. Knowing this, Levent reached out to his fan base and used a Twitter poll to ask if he should try opening a crypto wallet registered in his name to collect donations.<\/p>\n

After most voters supported this idea, Levent reached out to MASAK to ask for permission. Ten hours later, the watchdog said it allowed<\/a> three wallets to actively collect donations for a week.<\/p>\n

At the time of writing, the wallets have been active for six hours and collected<\/a> over $2 million, which equates to over 37 billion Turkish Lira. Levent said he would facilitate the liquidity process and transfer them to “Ahbap,” an NGO helping with disaster relief.<\/p>\n

Crypto community unites<\/h2>\n

A Turkish crypto influencer, Stevedabitcoin<\/a>, said<\/a> he and BitFinex<\/a> CTO Paolo Ardoino<\/a> is facilitating a joint effort between the Steve Group<\/a>, BitFinex, and Tether (USDT<\/a>) to help people who were affected by the quakes.<\/p>\n

Hours after this, BitFinex and Tether announced<\/a> they were donating 5 million Turkish Lira ($265,508) to help with the disaster. A portion<\/a> of this amount will be sent to the regions affected by the earthquakes, while the rest will be saved to aid the rebuilding phase.<\/p>\n

The news also caught the attention of the leading crypto exchange Binance<\/a>, and its CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ<\/a>). On Feb. 6, CZ said the Binance team has been working on a project to help Turkey.<\/p>\n

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We are truly saddened by the earthquake in Turkey \ud83c\uddf9\ud83c\uddf7. Our team has been working on a solution to help the people. There are quite a few details. I have had 4 meetings on it today. More details to come. Stay strong. \ud83d\ude4f<\/p>\n

— CZ \ud83d\udd36 Binance (@cz_binance) February 6, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n