Turkey's Bitcoin Exchange Has Best Week of 2016 After PayPal Exit

The numbers show movement. Between May 28th and June 3rd, BTCTurk moved 4,696 BTC—around $2.7 million in total volume, according to the exchange's Twitter account and API data. No other week in 2016 had come close. The second-highest was April 2nd through April 8th, with 4,250 BTC.

Scale this against history. BTCTurk has handled more volume before. In January 2015, during the week of the 10th through the 16th, the site recorded 6,042.64 BTC in total volume. Bitcoin's price had dropped below $200 that week, triggering panic selling across all exchanges worldwide. Bitcoin's price climbed in recent weeks, and other major exchanges like Bitfinex saw their trading peaks rise with the price.

But the pattern at BTCTurk diverged. The surge came in the days after the PayPal announcement, not when the price climbed. That timing points to a connection between the news and the spike.

Turkey has a fraught history with digital platforms. In 2014, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan promised to "wipe out" Twitter after the service became a channel for spreading government embarrassments. YouTube has faced blocks too. The government later lifted both restrictions. Bitcoin poses a harder problem. There's no central company to pressure, no headquarters to demand relocations like PayPal faced. If Turkey's government tries to suppress Bitcoin, it will face a protocol that resists suppression in ways corporate services cannot. What moves the government might make, if any, remains unclear.