Kazakhstan has introduced its first national cryptocurrency reserve—the Alem Crypto Fund—with BNB chosen as the initial digital currency through a collaboration with Binance Kazakhstan. The project is led by the Ministry of AIand Digital Development, overseen by the Qazaqstan Venture Group, and officially registered in the Astana International Financial Center.
Zhaslan Madiyev, the country’s Deputy Prime Minister, stated that the initiative is designed to attract large-scale investors and eventually become a foundation for the country’s digital financial reserves.
BNB is one of the world’s leading cryptocurrencies with a market value of $138 billion. It powers the BNB Chain, where it is used for transactions, paying fees, and governance voting. Nurkhat Kushimov, General Manager of Binance Kazakhstan, said that its inclusion represents a milestone for institutional adoption of crypto within the country.
The initiative follows President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s call to create a government-backed reserve of digital currency managed by the National Bank’s Investment Corporation. He outlined a vision of building up holdings of promising assets and pledged as much as $1 billion to programs aimed at advancing fintech and high-tech industries.
Tokayev also announced the expansion of the digital tenge for state and local budgets and introduced plans for an anti-fraud center to strengthen cybersecurity.
Kazakhstan recently approved the use of stablecoins for regulatory payments during the Astana Finance Days. Bybit became the first crypto exchange to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the Astana Financial Services Authority under the framework, allowing companies within the AIFC to pay fees using USD-pegged stablecoins.
The National Bank also confirmed its intention to allocate part of the nation’s foreign currency reserves, gold, and sovereign wealth funds into crypto-related investments. The country also made headlines by launching Central Asia’s first BTC spot ETF. Alongside this, the country finished pilot trials for its central bank digital currency, with full rollout of the digital tenge planned by year’s end.
The country’s involvement with crypto dates back to 2021, when miners moved operations there after China’s ban, briefly giving Kazakhstan 27 percent of global BTC mining. That share later fell due to energy constraints and new regulations, though the country still supports registered mining farms, licensing 84 operations and running more than 400,000 machines.
Kazakhstan’s push reflects a wider global trend. Bhutan has rolled out a crypto-based tourism payment system in partnership with DK Bank and Binance Pay, while Thailand has created TouristDigiPay to let visitors convert crypto into baht. In Europe, France’s Riviera area now allows crypto payments in over 80 businesses, including hotels and luxury shops, through a partnership with Binance Pay and fintech firm Lyzi.
These developments support the long-held belief by companies like Bullish (NYSE: BLSH) that cryptos are bound to have an increasing role to play in international finance systems.
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