Kazakhstan financial regulators have granted license and supervision costs to pay in stablescoins with USD.
The Astana Financial Services Authority (AFSA) of Kazakhstan, a financial authority designated for the Astana International Financial Center (AIFC), launched a project allowing the members of the AIFC to pay regulatory costs in stablecoins with USD.
The regulator announced Thursday that the project was officially launched during the local Astana Finance Days 2025 event, signing a multilateral understanding memorandum (MMOU) related to the Centralize Crypto Exchange (CEX) bybit.
“This initiative represents a primary regulatory framework of its kind for payments in the floors of the region, signaling the ambition of Kazakhstan to position the AIFC as a digital finance center (…),” said AFSA CEO, Evgeniya Bogdanova.
Replacement of fiat payments only
Currently, companies pay regulation fees mainly through traditional methods such as banking transfers and wire payments in fiduciary currencies such as the US dollar and Kazakhstani Tenge, a Bybit spokesperson told Bybit.
“These methods are functional but often involve delays, high transaction costs and limited flexibility, in particular for companies whose main treasure is held in digital assets,” said the representative.
With stablecoins like Tether USDT (USDT) or USDC (USDC) of Circle, the parties have a quick, profitable and transparent payment option, noted bybit spokesperson.
Participation is subject to eligibility criteria
According to the official declaration of AFSA, the participation of the project requires signing an MMI, subject to meeting the criteria for the eligibility of the authority.
Parbit has become the inaugural signatory of MMOU, which was signed during the days of financing at Astana 2025 by Bogdanova and Bybit of AFSA, CEO, Mazurka Zeng.
The names of the suppliers participating in the new project will be published on the official AFSA website after signing an MMI, said the regulator.
Cointelegraph approached AFSA for comments concerning the details of the project, including the eligibility criteria, but had not received a response at the time of publication.
Jesse Kutson, operations manager at Bitfinex Securities – who has been operating in Kazakhstan since 2021 – told Cintelegraph that AFSA project “demonstrates how the central stables like USDT are the development of token financial markets”.
“The FSA paved the way by becoming one of the first to develop a regulatory regime for the issue and the list of token titles, and they are again a first furniture in the acceptance of the USDT and others as fungible currency for their own regulatory costs,” said Kutson.
In relation: The President of the ECB calls to respond to the risks of stablescoins not ue
The news occurred in the middle of the crypto which was gaining momentum in Kazakhstan, the cryptocurrency goalkeeper in the United States Bitgo helping the launch of the first ETF Bitcoin of Central Asia by the local Fonte Capital company in August.
Kazakhstan has become a major player in the cryptography industry, including the exploitation of cryptocurrency. In June, local authorities also declared that they have studied the concept of a state -managed cryptography reserve, probably funded by digital assets extracted or seized by the government.
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