We are pleased to share the latest contribution to the CARF White Paper Series, authored by Assoc. Prof. Cenk C. Karahan.
The white paper examines a growing mismatch between financial regulation and modern financial instruments. Regulatory frameworks still largely rest on mid-twentieth-century categories in which money, securities, commodities, deposits, and fund shares are treated as legally distinct and governed by separate authorities. Yet instruments such as stablecoins and tokenized Treasury funds increasingly combine several of these functions at once.
Drawing on developments in the United States, the European Union, and Türkiye, the paper argues that classification alone cannot keep pace with this convergence, and that a more durable response requires structural reform.
The paper recommends:
• A unified regulatory lens for instruments spanning multiple categories
• Regulatory sandboxes for testing novel financial products
• Competitive neutrality between traditional incumbents and new market entrants
• Stronger regulatory coordination in Türkiye
Taken together, these recommendations point toward a more coordinated, adaptive, and forward-looking regulatory architecture. For Türkiye, developing such a framework proactively could provide a more coherent foundation for governing the next generation of financial markets.
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