Bitcoin Price Hits 7-Month High Against Turkish Lira

Bitcoin (BTC) jumped to seven-month highs against Turkey’s national currency, the lira (TRY), on Monday.

The price spike comes after the U.S. imposed sanctions against Turkey on Friday for continuing to hold an American pastor in custody.

The resultant economic shock-wave has seen the lira drop to a new lifetime low of 7.20 TRY against the U.S. dollar today, after already having dropped 27 percent last week. On a year-to-date basis, the lira is down more than 80 percent against the greenback.

The crash in the lira looks very likely to be increasing bitcoin’s proposition as a safe-haven asset in Turkey, and the price of the cryptocurrency shot up to 47,192 TRY earlier today – the highest level since January 21, according to Bitfinex data. At press time, the figure had dropped slightly to around 44,000 TRY.

Since August 8, BTC has appreciated against the lira by 31 percent and is also up by 67 percent from the June 24 low of 26,337 TRY. By comparison, the cryptocurrency’s U.S….