Global Designs: Leading Turkish Crypto Exchange Bitay Begins “Glocalization”
When preparing to launch Bitay in Turkey, our goal was to build a digital asset exchange that would stand out in a competitive cryptocurrency ecosystem. Our efforts paid off: since going live in late 2019, we have vaulted to the top of the field, becoming the country’s fastest-growing and most trusted crypto marketplace.
Now we’re taking our operations “glocal,” as we like to call it, by establishing a global network of tailored local exchanges in emerging markets, all of which will be overseen by a holding company in the Netherlands.
The key to our success in Turkey was building a centralized exchange ready for prime time. We saw the need for a secure and easy-to-use marketplace, one that remedied the flaws — especially with regard to onboarding and payment systems — commonly found in centralized exchanges. The sudden spike in demand for Bitcoin and other crypto-assets in 2017 highlighted many of these issues, which in turn inspired our CEO Niyazi Yılmaz to begin developing Bitay. The technological solutions ultimately created are elegant, easily deployable, intuitive, and accessible.
Take the normally tedious and time-consuming onboarding and KYC process. Funded by research and development grants from the Turkish state, we created an elegant automated solution, bypassing all the hassle associated with manual verification. In fact, Bitay was the first exchange in Turkey to implement a GDPR-compliant ID verification system using local government API that reduces KYC from days to less than 5 minutes. As we move to serve users across the world, identity verification will be streamlined and accelerated by using chip-based national ID cards and smartphones with NFC (Near Field Communication). The process is quick and practical — just a snap and click on your phone — while also incredibly secure, as all user data is protected using the same sophisticated technology employed by the world’s leading banks.
Beyond investing and trading, there’s the question of spending digital assets — a key factor in the wider acceptance and adoption of crypto.
To meet this need, we have built a technological framework that allows merchants to receive fast, direct payments unaffected by currency fluctuations, and customers to make contactless payments using cryptocurrencies in their digital wallets. We are also currently integrated with banks in Turkey, a path that we will follow in our target markets as part of our “glocalization” efforts. Providing bank interoperability allows Bitay’s users to have a seamless withdrawal/deposit experience; moreover, our expanding global network means that both individuals and businesses will have cross-border payments and currency transfers at their fingertips.
In addition to making Bitay easy to use, we have found success in Turkey by placing an emphasis on security, as hacking incidents and fraud continue to make headlines in the crypto world. Turkish users have come to trust our exchange, which was built with the highest technical security standards available and is diligently maintained with operational security policies and procedures. In fact, the majority of cryptocurrencies are stored in cold storage such as hardware wallets, computers not connected to the Internet, and paper wallets, and any account withdrawal is subject to 2-factor authentication and email verification.
Our incredibly gifted and experienced team was fundamental to establishing a trusted and accessible crypto platform in Turkey. Moreover, this group has the technical prowess and credibility required to grow a global portfolio, one that will link multiple markets with a payment and fiat gateway as well as a diversified portfolio of services. With headquarters established in Estonia and the United States, and plans for a holding company in the Netherlands, we have our sights set on growth and scaling in India, CIS (Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Georgia), Central Europe (Ukraine, Russia, Poland), Southeast Europe (Serbia, Bosnia, Macedonia, Romania, Bulgaria), the U.S., and MENA (Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine).
Working closely with trusted advisors from across the globe, we will establish local companies for each market and acquire any necessary licenses, just as we did in Estonia (License №16151936 from the National Financial Intelligence Unit) and in the U.S. (FinCEN License №31000182722078). Expansion into these priority markets is scheduled to be complete by the end of 2022, and our aim is to reach 10 million users in 2 years and 30 million users in 3 years.
Going global necessitates big thinking as well as local adaptation — in other words, context matters. Building on our success in the domestic Turkish market, we are confident that we can expand to meet the needs of the various crypto ecosystems across the globe with our “glocalization” roadmap.
