Cryptocurrencies being subject to theft crimes

In Turkish Criminal Law, in order for the perpetrator to be held responsible for the crime of theft regulated in Article 141 of the Turkish Penal Code No. 5237 and its following, he or she must take actual control of a movable property in the possession of someone else, against the consent of the possessor, for the purpose of obtaining benefit. At this point, it is important to explain concepts such as property, possession and dominance in a legal sense, to clarify when the property will cease to be under the possession of the possessor and enter into the possession of the perpetrator, and when the crime of theft will be considered completed and when it will remain in the attempted stage. Considering the practice of the Supreme Court of Appeals and the opinions in the doctrine, it is understood that the "taking of the property" will not occur by taking the property from its location, but by entering it into the actual domination of the perpetrator or someone else. If the perpetrator puts the property into his or someone else's possession without being followed, it is accepted that he has actual control over the property. In practice, the prevailing opinion is that in cases where the perpetrator is followed and caught uninterruptedly by the victim or a third party, or if he cannot smuggle the goods, the crime of theft will remain in the attempted stage. At this point, in order for the act to turn into looting, the perpetrator must have committed force or threat against the victim or a third party before the property comes under the actual control of the perpetrator. At this point, considering the increasingly widespread use of cryptocurrencies today and their being seen as investment instruments, the actions taken on the blockchain must be evaluated in terms of criminal law and new criminal regulations must be made in accordance with the principle of nullum crimen nulla poena sine lege. However, the regulations and jurisprudence in force up to this stage were evaluated together and it was discussed which actions would give rise to criminal liability in terms of which articles in the Turkish Penal Code.