Türkiye becomes the latest country to join the global bank account crackdown

Türkiye has become the latest country and has begun to crack down on bank accounts, but it has not stopped as cryptocurrencies are also on the shooting line.

The Turkish government is drafting legislation to expand the powers of its financial crime regulator MASAK, allowing it to freeze and limit access to banks and cryptocurrency accounts.

Bloomberg reported on Monday that the bill was designed to curb money laundering, fraud and “rental” accounts used for illegal betting.

The Government Indoor Regulatory Agency (FATF) has issued an anti-money laundering standard, which was removed from its “gray list” in June 2024.

Encrypted account targeted

If passed, the legislation would enable MASAK to close bank accounts, impose transaction restrictions, suspend mobile banking and blacklist cryptocurrencies to address issues it considers to be related to crime.

The new law also focuses on “rental accounts” or “mule accounts” that are accounts that criminals pay individuals for activities such as illegal gambling, financial fraud or scams.

Cryptocurrency trade remains legal in Türkiye, but the government is tightening regulations and controls. In July, Turkish financial regulators blocked access to several crypto platforms that offer “unauthorized” digital asset services, including pancakesswap’s decentralized exchanges.

Türkiye is not the only country to tighten control of bank accounts.

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In November, their suspected Indian authorities frozen 450,000 sub-accounts, linked to money laundering and cyber fraud.

In April, Nigeria froze hundreds of bank accounts suspected of participating in “suspicious foreign exchange flows”. Ethiopian authorities have also recently targeted bank accounts related to so-called illegal foreign exchange activities.

Big Asian banks suppress

Banks in Thailand and Vietnam have been frozen recently by the fact that they have become victims of a large M-sub-account.

Thailand has frozen up to 3 million bank accounts this year, many of which are innocent citizens or businesses as the country struggles to resolve the scam center. The country has also imposed strict transfer restrictions on all mobile banking applications, face-to-face KYC and has been revoking foreigners.

The Thai Bank simply freezes 3 million bank accounts overnight and deals with the scam at $1.3K – $5.5k per day.

You cannot freeze Bitcoin. pic.twitter.com/j4pztyd6cc

— Sashahodler (@sashahodler) September 14, 2025

Thailand also accuses cryptocurrencies of unusually strong currencies, but this is far from the fact that the kingdom has a small trade volume and cryptocurrencies have been banned for payments.

Earlier this year, Singapore authorized police to freeze bank accounts in a scam. In early September, Vietnam frozen 86 million bank accounts, involving non-compliance with new biometric requirements.