Turkey’s central bank went from holding $15.7 billion in US Treasuries in February to just $1.8 billion by the end of March. That’s an 89% reduction in a single month, roughly $14 billion in liquidated American government debt, all to keep the lira from going into freefall.

What forced Ankara’s hand

The Iran war, which began on February 28, 2026, sent shockwaves through Turkey’s economy almost immediately. Capital outflows accelerated, energy prices spiked, and the lira came under intense selling pressure.

The Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey didn’t stop at Treasuries. From late February onward, the CBRT sold approximately $22 billion in foreign government securities to stabilize the currency. It also drew down over 127 tonnes of gold reserves, the largest gold drawdown in the country’s history.

On the domestic side, the CBRT deployed equally aggressive tools. Daily securities purchases hit TRY 1,174 billion, and overnight interest rates were hiked to 40% to stem the bleeding. The USD/TRY pair traded as high as 44.5 to 45.6 from late March through May, a brutal depreciation from pre-war levels.

A tactical move, not a vote of no confidence

Analysts who tracked the CBRT’s behavior described it as a liquidity play, not an ideological one. Turkey needed cash, specifically dollars, and Treasuries are the single most liquid asset on the planet. When your currency is in crisis and capital is fleeing, you sell what you can sell fastest.

What this means for investors

The immediate takeaway is that Turkey’s foreign reserve buffer is dramatically thinner than it was two months ago. The combination of Treasury liquidation and record gold drawdowns means the CBRT has far less ammunition if the lira faces another wave of pressure.

Media coverage of the Treasury liquidation has focused almost entirely on macroeconomic implications: inflation risk, lira volatility, and regional instability. There has been no meaningful connection drawn to cryptocurrency markets during this episode, which is notable given that previous emerging market currency crises have sometimes driven retail flows into Bitcoin and stablecoins.