Kazakhstan’s AFSA To Adopt Stablecoins for Regulatory Fees

Kazakhstan’s monetary regulators have allowed license and supervision charges to be paid in USD-pegged stablecoins.

Kazakhstan’s Astana Monetary Companies Authority (AFSA), a chosen monetary authority for the Astana Worldwide Monetary Centre (AIFC), has launched a mission enabling AIFC members to pay regulatory charges in USD-pegged stablecoins.

The regulator announced on Thursday that the mission was formally launched on the native occasion Astana Finance Days 2025, signing a associated multilateral memorandum of understanding (MMoU) with the centralized crypto trade (CEX) Bybit.

“This initiative represents a first-of-its-kind regulatory framework for funds in stablecoins within the area, signaling Kazakhstan’s ambition to place the AIFC as a hub for digital finance […],” AFSA CEO Evgeniya Bogdanova stated.

Changing fiat-only funds

At present, firms pay regulatory charges primarily via conventional strategies akin to financial institution transfers and wire funds in fiat currencies such because the US greenback and the Kazakhstani tenge, a spokesperson for Bybit instructed Cointelegraph.

“These strategies are useful however usually contain delays, excessive transaction prices and restricted flexibility, particularly for corporations whose major treasury is held in digital property,” the consultant stated.

With stablecoins like Tether USDt (USDT) or Circle’s USDC (USDC), the events are supplied with a quick, cost-efficient, and clear fee possibility, the Bybit spokesperson famous.

Participation is topic to eligibility standards

In line with the official assertion from the AFSA, the mission’s participation requires signing an MMoU, topic to assembly the authority’s eligibility standards.

Bybit grew to become the inaugural signatory of the MMoU, which was signed throughout Astana Finance Days 2025 by AFSA’s Bogdanova and Bybit CEO Mazurka Zeng.

The names of the suppliers taking part within the new mission shall be revealed on the official AFSA web site after signing an MMoU, the regulator stated.

Cointelegraph approached the AFSA for remark concerning the mission particulars, together with eligibility standards, however had not acquired a response on the time of publication.

Jesse Knutson, head of operations at Bitfinex Securities — which has been operating in Kazakhstan since 2021 — instructed Cointelegraph that the AFSA’s mission “demonstrates how central stablecoins like USDt are to the event of tokenised monetary markets.”

“FSA led the way in which by turning into one of many first to develop a regulatory regime for the issuance and itemizing of tokenised securities, and they’re once more a first-mover in accepting USDt and others as a fungible foreign money for their very own regulatory charges,” Knutson stated.

Associated: ECB president calls to address risks from non-EU stablecoins

The information got here amid crypto gaining momentum in Kazakhstan, with the US-regulated crypto custodian BitGo aiding the launch of Central Asia’s first spot Bitcoin ETF by the native firm Fonte Capital in August.

Kazakhstan has emerged as a serious participant within the crypto trade, including cryptocurrency mining. In June, native authorities additionally reported studying the concept of a state-run crypto reserve, probably funded by digital property mined or seized by the federal government.