Kazakhstan Blocked 980 Unregistered Crypto Trading Platforms in 2023
The Financial Monitoring Agency of Kazakhstan recently noted that the firm has launched an investigation into 9 crypto firms for conducting illegal trading operations. These firms are also under scrutiny for money laundering allegations.
On the other hand, FMA officials have reported that the agency has blocked consumer access to almost a thousand cryptocurrency exchanges that were operating in the region without getting a license.
On this account, FMA released an official press release recently on the state-owned website. The notification listed the names of 980 unlicensed cryptocurrency exchanges that were halted in 2023.
The website has also included information about the investigation process of nine cryptocurrency exchanges that are suspected of conducting illegal financial transactions. The information was revealed by the chairperson of FMA Ruslan Ostroumov during the Eurasian Group meeting in China.
Kazakhstan Regulators Updated Digital Asset Laws in February 2023
The financial regulators in Kazakhstan updated the Digital Assets Law in February 2023. These laws mandate acquiring a national trading license for digital currency firms and trading platforms operating in the country.
The Astana International Financial Center is working as a special economic zone in Kazakhstan and grants primary approvals for digital asset firms. At the same time, the financial regulators also listed unlicensed trading platforms that were operating on an international scale.
In November, crypto investors hailing from the Central Asian nation were unable to access their Coinbase accounts following blockade orders from the Ministry of Culture and Information. This Ministry noted that the orders arrived from another Ministry office for Digital Development that accused Coinbase of intercepting Digital Assets Laws.
Therefore, select exchanges with a national operating license such as Binance, Bybit, ATAIX, Upbit, Biteeu, Xignal&MT, and CaspianEx have remained operational in the country.
National Payment Cooperation of Kazakhstan Launches CBDC
The National Payment Cooperation of Kazakhstan or NPC has launched the digital tenge or CBDC recently. Binur Zhalenov, the chairperson of NPC noted that the Central Bank conducted the first transaction of digital tenge during his speech at the Finance Congress on 15th November.
He reported that he made the payment using a debit card that was linked to the CBDC wallet. From this point, he also unveiled retail market launch of digital tenge in 2024.
He noted that consumers are able to make payments from anywhere in the world using digital payment platforms such as Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and others. He also briefed media about the potential of digital tenge with programmability in areas such as smart contracts, financial services, and digital currency transactions.
Zhalenov noted that in 2024, the CBDC product will allow users to make offline transactions and in 2025 the product will add the update to make cross-border payments.
