In his annual address yesterday, Monday 8 September, Kazakhstani President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev announced plans for the National Bank’s investment arm to establish a fund and legal framework for digital assets by 2026.
Under this initiative, the central bank’s investment division – not private actors – will manage crypto holdings, ensuring greater centralised oversight.
Between now and the 2026 proposed implementation date, the National Bank is devising regulation dictating how a ‘Kazakhstan Cryptocurrency Reserve’ would be formed and managed.
This announcement follows the Astana Financial Services Authority (AFSA), the regulatory body of the Astana International Financial Center (AIFC), launching a pilot that allows certain regulatory fees and government charges to be paid in USD-pegged stablecoins.
AFSA Chief Executive Officer Evgeniya Bogdanova said, “Stablecoins are reshaping global finance, and by accepting regulatory fees in USD-pegged stablecoins, we make the AIFC faster, more open, and firmly connected to the future – offering participants a modern, reliable way to grow within a trusted regulatory framework.”
Bybit Kazakhstan, a subsidiaryof the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, Bybit, will be working in collaboration with the AFSA and the AIFC for this pilot.
Kazakhstan has steadily positioned itself as a regional and global pioneer in financial technology. In November 2023, the digital tenge was piloted through a project with the Almaty City Akimat and Kazpost, providing “digital vouchers” for free school meals. Since, the digital currency has been used in sectors ranging from railways to real estate and agriculture.
In parallel, Visa, Mastercard, and four major banks—Halyk Bank, Altyn Bank, Bank CenterCredit, and Eurasian Bank—introduced the world’s first CBDC-linked bank cards, enabling global spending, withdrawals, and transactions in digital tenge through familiar payment channels.
Building on this momentum, Kazakhstan began issuing cryptocurrency cards in June 2025, linked to wallets on AIFC-licensed exchanges. The government also continues to expand the digital tenge: 257.5 billion are currently in circulation, with a full-scale national CBDC launch scheduled for December 2025.
Mazurka Zeng, Chief Operating Officer at Bybit said, “As an AFSA-licensed AIFC member, I’m deeply impressed by the open and forward-looking environment that AFSA has created for crypto payments, and the leadership it demonstrates in positioning AIFC as a true crypto hub.”
