The crypto market in Kazakhstan has become a full-fledged regulated industry. The digital asset market in Kazakhstan has finally emerged from the “gray zone” and formed a full-scale industry with two parallel legal regimes. On May 1, 2026, national regulation came into force in the country, giving the National Bank the authority to license crypto providers outside the jurisdiction of the AIFC. The scale of the market within the AIFC reached a turnover of $10.6 billion by the end of 2025. There are 28 licensed digital asset service providers in this jurisdiction, serving 215 thousand clients. Today, in both jurisdictions (AIFC and national), there are a total of more than 50 regulated participants, including crypto exchanges, custodians and tokenization platforms. Such data is presented in the RISE Research report “Fintech in Kazakhstan 2026”. Market development is supported by government initiatives. In 2026, a plan was approved to create a state crypto reserve of up to $350 million using gold and foreign exchange reserves, and investment will be made through the instruments of the crypto ecosystem without direct purchase of the cryptocurrencies themselves. A constitutional law on the special legal regime of city A was also adopted
latau (CryptoCity) and announced the creation of a single coordination center for the crypto industry. The Presidential Decree exempted income from transactions with digital assets from the IIT for the period 2026–2028 and established a roadmap for the use of stablecoins in foreign trade settlements and the development of DeFi. As part of national regulation, KASE became the first operator of the DFA platform and trading platform, and in the sandbox of the National Bank, the circulation of 73 unsecured digital assets is allowed and 33 pilot projects are being implemented. The industry has moved from testing infrastructure to running commercial business cases. Historical pilots for the industry have already been implemented in regulatory sandboxes: - In September 2025, trading of the world's first spot ETF based on Solana with staking (Fonte Solana ETF) started on the AIX exchange. — In the same month, the Intebix exchange together with the Eurasian Bank launched the first tenge-backed stablecoin (KZTE) in the National Bank’s sandbox. — In October 2025, the AIFC regulator for the first time in history accepted a regulatory fee in USDT stablecoins through the Bybit infrastructure. — In December 2025, the project of the National Bank and Bank CenterCredit for tokenization of refined gold was approved. — In February 2026
and the pilot of the Apartchain platform for tokenization of commercial real estate has started. — In April 2026, the first test crypto payment via QR code was carried out as part of a joint pilot by Bybit, Alatau City Bank and Binance. The full launch of the regulated infrastructure means the market transition to fierce competition with first-tier global exchanges, which enter Kazakhstan with enormous liquidity and technology budgets. “Three years ago, “crypto in Kazakhstan” meant mining farms and the constant fight against gray P2P flows. In 2026, this means regulated infrastructure, global partnerships and a real flow of tokenization projects,” emphasizes Talgat Dosanov, head of Solana Superteam and Network School. According to his assessment, consolidation awaits local platforms, and only those players will survive that can build deep regulatory relationships and offer tokenization of real-world assets (real estate, raw materials), connecting Kazakh assets with global liquidity pools - a task that foreign giants will not implement on their own. Kaspi Gold is now in Apple Pay The Kazakhstan IT services market has almost doubled Huawei Watch Fit 5 Pro: a premium gadget
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