Turkey’s Central Bank Looks at Digital Currency

The Turkish central bank said it has created the Digital Turkish Lira Collaboration Platform in order to conduct more research on the possible benefits of a digital currency, Reuters reported.

The bank said it has signed agreements separately with Turkey’s Havelsan, Aselsan and Tubitak-Bilgem for the platform, according to the report. Those will perform the research, development and testing.

No final decision has been made in terms of whether a digital lira will be available, the report stated. However, the results of the first phase of the pilot study will be announced in 2022.

Meanwhile, wealth management platform Abra, which works with cryptocurrency investors, has raised $55 million in a Series C funding round, according to a press release. Abra’s total funding to date is now more than $85 million.

With the new capital, the company plans to expand into new offerings for wealth management, trading and payments, the release stated. It also plans to scale its marketing team and develop its institutional sales offering.

The round was led by IGNIA and Blockchain Capital, with new investors including Kingsway Capital, Tiga Investments and the Stellar Development Foundation, according to the release. Additional investments came from existing investors, including Lerer Hippeau Ventures, Amex Ventures, Arbor Ventures, RRE Ventures, CMT Digital Ventures, and Kenetic Advisors.

In addition, several of the company’s customers, which included some prominent individual crypto investors, participated in the round, the release stated.

“Cryptocurrencies, [nonfungible tokens (NFTs)] and [decentralized finance (DeFi)] are now top of mind for almost all investors,” said Abra Founder and CEO Bill Barhydt in the release. “The crypto asset class is growing exponentially, even outpacing the early commercial internet itself. Our vision of crypto-centric banking is coming to life in front of our eyes, and Abra is excited to serve as a leader in the space.”