Istanbul Blockchain Week 2026 Puts Focus on Infrastructure and Compliance

Istanbul Blockchain Week 2026 highlighted a shift toward institutional crypto, with discussions centered on infrastructure, custody standards and regulatory compliance rather than retail speculation and meme coins. According to BeInCrypto, the event at Hilton Bomonti featured the inaugural Istanbul Institutional Markets Summit (IISM), where speakers stressed strict custodian regulation, full custodial insurance and Big Four audits as prerequisites for TradFi participation. Panels cited TÜBİTAK authorization criteria tied to 2024 amendments to Capital Markets Law No. 6362, including a mandated separation between trading platforms and custody institutions. Officials also pointed to stablecoin use cases such as settlement and cross-border payments, while Buğra Ayan outlined state AI and on-chain initiatives.