Kazakhstan’s regulated cryptocurrency market has experienced dramatic growth, rising more than thirtyfold since the country began implementing new regulations three years ago.
Transaction volume and user expansion
Official figures from the Astana Financial Services Authority (AFSA) show that cryptocurrency transaction volume in Kazakhstan reached $320 million in 2023 and climbed to $10.5 billion by the end of 2025, with continued growth reported into 2026.
Yerkegali Yedenbayev, managing director of the AFSA, stated during a government meeting that in the first half of 2026 alone, regulated crypto transactions reached $5.5 billion. He underscored the exceptional growth of the domestic market since the introduction of regulation.
“In the first half of 2026, the transaction volume reached $5.5 billion. Thus, the regulated market has grown more than 30-fold in a short period.”
The number of clients using regulated platforms in Kazakhstan rose sharply from 53,000 in 2023 to 270,000 to date. According to AFSA, Kazakhstani citizens are estimated to hold about 1 million cryptocurrency wallets globally.
Policy changes encourage crypto adoption
To attract crypto assets back into the national system, private crypto owners in Kazakhstan recently received personal income tax exemptions on gains from digital asset transactions. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev signed the relevant decree in August 2025, with collaboration from AFSA, the digital development ministry, and the central bank. The policy is intended to motivate citizens to transfer assets from foreign exchanges to locally regulated platforms.
As technical development speeds up, the country’s agencies are integrating broader innovations in financial infrastructure. While traditional financial markets typically depend on complex brokers, a shift toward Web3 technologies has begun to impact the sector. Platforms like 1stepSwap now enable investors to hold shares of major US companies, gold, and silver as tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) in their crypto wallets, automatically sourcing the best market prices and eliminating intermediaries.
Licenses and domestic crypto infrastructure
Kazakhstan emerged prominently in the crypto community as one of the leading destinations for digital asset mining after China imposed a ban on mining in 2021. While the influx of mining operations initially strained the country’s electrical grid, the government responded with targeted actions against unauthorized mining farms and introduced energy consumption limits.
Regulatory developments rapidly expanded, and in 2023, Kazakhstan adopted its law “On Digital Assets,” which was revised the following spring to broaden the legal scope for service providers.
Timur Suleimenov, chairman of the National Bank of Kazakhstan (NBK), announced that three crypto exchange operators have obtained licenses for domestic operation. He added that another five, mostly international platforms, are awaiting license approval to enter the local market.
The NBK chair described Kazakhstan’s regulatory framework as the region’s most comprehensive for the crypto industry, pointing out that the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE) is now authorized to operate as a digital asset platform to help develop the necessary market infrastructure.
KASE has handled 34,000 deals valued at 20.5 billion tenge ($45 million) for Bitcoin exchange-traded funds, along with 650 trades totaling about 1 billion tenge for other crypto ETFs. The three licensed crypto exchanges recorded turnover of almost 2 billion tenge (around $4.5 million) in their first two months of authorized trading.
In parallel, Binance recently selected Kazakhstan as a key regional hub for cross-border settlements and money transfers, aiming to provide services across the Commonwealth of Independent States and Eastern Europe. Government officials believe these developments will strengthen Kazakhstan’s position as a central hub for digital assets in Eurasia.
