Türkiye-based digital asset platform Paribu has published the 2026 edition of its Crypto Awareness and Perception Survey, conducted with FutureBright Group. Now in its seventh year, the survey tracks how people in Türkiye view and use crypto. The results show that more than half of crypto traders now use AI when making investment decisions, and that crypto investors have widened their portfolios.
AI becomes part of trading decisions
According to the survey, 53% of crypto traders use AI often or always when making investment decisions, rising to 87% among daily traders. In addition, 43% of traders would let an AI agent manage their crypto portfolio, compared with 37% of all respondents.
The fieldwork took place in July and August 2026, after a difficult first half of the year for crypto markets. The Paribu Fear & Greed Index spent most of that period in extreme fear, and Bitcoin reached its lowest level of 2026 on 1 July, the day fieldwork began. Even so, 60% of crypto investors said crypto remained their first-choice investment over the year, and 46% of all respondents see crypto as a trustworthy investment, up from 42%.
Broader portfolios and more assets traded
Crypto investors hold an average of 2.7 types of investment, compared with 1.5 for investors who do not trade crypto, and only one in ten keeps everything in crypto. Gold is the most common asset held alongside crypto, at 57%, followed by foreign currency at 32% and stocks and funds at 27%. Over the past year, 56% of crypto investors moved money from crypto into other assets, mainly gold and stocks, citing market volatility (47%) and profit-taking (38%).
Traders are also spreading activity across more coins, with a third now trading three or more crypto assets. Solana trading rose from 11% to 18% of traders, and USDC from 6% to 13%. For the first time, Bitcoin overtook 'virtual or digital money' as the first association with the word cryptocurrency, at 30%. Half of respondents said it matters whether a platform is based in Türkiye, and three in four of them choose local platforms. The survey was conducted online among 1,999 people aged 18 to 55 across 12 regions of Türkiye, with a margin of error of ±2.2 for the full sample and ±3.6 for the 740 respondents who trade crypto. Previous editions used face-to-face interviews, so year-on-year comparisons should be read with this change in mind. In July 2026, Paribu expanded into DeFi and equities within its app.
