Erdogan's Opponent's Arrest Drives Lira to All-Time Low, Bitcoin-TRY Volume Spikes on Binance

As the lira falls, trading activity on Binance's BTC/TRY pair surges.

Key Points:

• The Turkish lira hit a record low against the dollar after Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, a political rival of President Erdogan, was arrested.
• Following the arrest, there was a surge in trading volumes for the bitcoin-lira pair on Binance.
• The lira has been volatile for years, driving increased demand for hard assets and cryptocurrencies.

The Turkish lira (TRY) plunged to a record low against the dollar after the unexpected arrest of Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, a rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The lira dropped nearly 10% to reach a record low of 41 TRY per U.S. dollar. This volatility led to a sharp increase in trading volumes for the bitcoin-lira (BTC/TRY) pair on the Binance exchange.

Imamoglu's party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), denounced the arrest as a coup aimed at undermining the will of the people. Imamoglu, who was expected to be the CHP's presidential candidate in an upcoming primary, had significant political support.

On Binance, trading volume for the BTC/TRY pair spiked during the hour from 7:00 UTC to 8:00 UTC, with 93 BTC exchanged. This marked the highest hourly volume for the pair in at least a year, according to data from TradingView.

However, when accounting for the lira's exchange rate, Bitcoin was trading at a significant discount compared to prices on other platforms like Coinbase.

Traders may have sold BTC/TRY in order to move funds into dollar-pegged assets, such as USDT, the leading stablecoin.

Binance's BTCTRY volume and exchange-rate adjusted price in TRY and USDT markets. (TradingView)

Fiat currency volatility has been a long-standing issue in Turkey, driving increased demand for hard assets like gold, as well as alternative assets such as stablecoins and cryptocurrencies. The lira has steadily depreciated since at least 2017, when its value was 3.53 to the dollar.