Turkish Residents Flock to Bitcoin During Military Coup

The Turkish government is currently rounding up members of the groups that launched a military coup in recent days. During the coup, citizens ran to their banks and local ATMs to get their wealth out of the system as Turkey’s currency dropped significantly in value.

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Bitcoin Supporters Tell Turkish Citizens to Turn to Cryptocurrency

As usual, many Bitcoiners believe residents living in Turkey should look to bitcoin to preserve their wealth. The Turkish Lira’s value has suffered as the military coup stirred fear throughout the country. With the civil unrest unfolding, media publications such as Seeking Alpha are reporting about bitcoin being used as a financial safe haven.

Seeking Alpha reporter Scott Tzu states:

“Ten years ago this article would have been about gold. Today the conversation turns to bitcoin, and why we have a small allocation toward the digital currency.”

When the military coup started on June 14, reports and photos of bank runs and long ATM lines surfaced on the Internet. The banks in Turkey tried to quell the financial fiasco by offering unlimited liquidity, and the Turkish Prime Minister told the world that “macroeconomic fundamentals remain solid.” Officials from the region wanted to reassure investors the coup would not cause turbulence within the country’s economy.

However, the various reports and images confirm that the coup has indeed affected the Turkish economy.     

Often times, when economies fail, such as in Greece, Venezuela, and the recent Brexit, Bitcoin supporters seize the opportunities to raise awareness about the advantages of Bitcoin.

It seems that Turkish residents got the message, as BraveNewCoin’s Bitcoin Index has shown a significant spike in BTC/TRY markets.

With the coup now over, and rebel forces tracked down, maybe Turkish citizens will look to the cryptocurrency to hedge against chaos caused by future conflicts.

Bitcoin users are not affected by military coups, bank failures or government intervention. The cryptocurrency has been fully-functional since its inception, and has never seen market blackouts. Bitcoin is truly peer-to-peer, decentralized and open source for the entire globe to share. Without a doubt, Bitcoin is one of the best forms of money.

Turkish citizens withdrawing their fiat to buy bitcoin where they know they're money is safe. #bitcoin is safe. https://t.co/9jRSUvqwde

— flibbr (@flibbr) July 15, 2016

Spreading information about Bitcoin’s virtues as a monetary safe haven, free from typical controls governments place on wealth, will most likely continue with increasingly bleak outlooks on growth in the mainstream economy. Many governments are falling to the wayside due to financial difficulties, and nation states in general are becoming more irrelevant.

What do you think about countries with failing economies turning to Bitcoin? Let us know in the comments below!

Images courtesy of the BNC Index, Coin Dance, and Bitcoin.com forum moderator LiteCoinGuy.

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