Kazakhstan’s regulated crypto market tops 10 billion USD as Web3 push accelerates
Kazakhstan’s regulated cryptocurrency market has surpassed 10 billion USD in annual trading turnover, marking a dramatic expansion of the Central Asian country’s licensed digital asset sector as it builds out a domestic Web3 developer ecosystem and extends blockchain into regulated finance.
According to Deputy Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development Gizzat Baitursynov, trading turnover across the regulated market reached 10.58 billion USD in 2025, compared with just 320 million USD in 2023. Over the same period, the number of users rose from 53,000 to 215,000.
Baitursynov disclosed the figures during a government meeting on Sept. 15, detailing the growth that followed Kazakhstan’s initial crypto market pilot with the Astana International Financial Centre and financial regulators. Launched in 2022, the pilot was designed to test a regulatory framework for cryptocurrency exchanges before becoming the basis for a licensing and operating system within the AIFC.
From pilot project to licensed market
The turnover figures represent one of the fastest expansions of a regulated crypto market anywhere in the world, with trading volumes multiplying more than thirtyfold in two years. The growth has been accompanied by continued construction of regulatory infrastructure around the market.
Kazakhstan plans to establish a national crypto analytics center to monitor fiat payments, cryptocurrency transfers, wallets and customer information. National Bank Chairman Timur Suleimenov said the center would operate on the central bank’s SupTech supervisory platform and connect with its existing Anti-Fraud Center, with banks, law enforcement agencies and licensed digital asset providers expected to receive access to its verification tools.
The country has paired market expansion with enforcement against unlicensed activity. Authorities blocked more than 1,100 online platforms offering cryptocurrency exchange services without authorization during 2025, after taking action against 36 illegal crypto platforms a year earlier. Those operators recorded combined turnover of 60 billion tenge, and authorities seized 4.8 million USDT from unauthorized services.
Solana at the center of the developer push
Development of the regulated market has run alongside programs designed to train blockchain developers and support local Web3 projects. Talgat Dossanov, head of the Solana Superteam KZ corporate foundation, said more than 8,000 people received training through cooperation with the Solana ecosystem over the past year, with more than 2,000 participants completing the programs and receiving certificates.
Roughly one in five certified graduates represented a government body, according to Dossanov. Training programs covered blockchain fundamentals, development on Solana, practical assignments and preparation for international hackathons. Kazakhstan has since entered the global top 10 by the number of applications submitted to international Solana hackathons.
Local startups have received financial support alongside the training programs. A total of 57 Kazakh startups secured grants worth 121 million tenge, equivalent to approximately 262,000 USD. The country also hosted an international Solana Summit attended by more than 900 participants from over 30 countries, with livestreams distributed through Solana’s social media channels reaching an audience of roughly 4 million people, according to the government. Kazakhstan remains the only country in Central Asia with an official Solana representation.
Blockchain enters the financial mainstream
Work with the Solana ecosystem has moved beyond developer training into regulated financial products. Together with the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange, the country launched an exchange traded fund based on the public Solana blockchain, giving the domestic financial market a direct connection to the network as regulated Solana investment products expand internationally.
Kazakhstan has also pursued direct cooperation with organizations in the Solana ecosystem. On June 11, Alatau City and the Solana Foundation signed a memorandum in Hong Kong covering further cooperation, as Alatau City develops its role in the country’s technology and digital asset plans.
Digital asset policy in Kazakhstan now covers trading, mining, payments, market surveillance and state investment programs. In July, the government approved a strategic crypto mining framework that allows qualifying large-scale miners to obtain electricity quotas at regulated tariffs after agreeing to transfer part of their mined cryptocurrency to a reserve mechanism administered through Astana Hub. Operators seeking strategic status must own a digital mining data center with at least 150 megawatts of installed capacity, with mining equipment providing at least 150 terahashes per second per unit.
The mining program sits alongside Kazakhstan’s plans for direct state exposure to digital assets. Earlier in 2026, the National Investment Corporation earmarked 350 million USD from foreign currency and gold reserves for crypto-related investments.
Tokenization is next
The country’s next set of blockchain projects targets physical assets. National Bank Governor Suleimenov said Kazakhstan plans to tokenize up to 60 million USD worth of real estate and logistics projects by the end of 2026, testing digital assets as a source of financing for economic projects.
The initiative extends Kazakhstan’s blockchain activity from cryptocurrency trading and mining into tokenized real world assets, a sector that has reached roughly 30 billion USD globally by mid 2026 according to industry trackers.
For policymakers elsewhere, Kazakhstan offers a template: licensed exchanges under a financial center regime, supervised trading volumes, state-backed mining reserves, developer education at scale, and now tokenization pilots, all coordinated from a single national strategy. The 10 billion USD milestone suggests the approach is attracting users at a pace few predicted when the pilot launched four years ago.
Market snapshot at publication: Bitcoin trades at 86,238 USD, Ethereum at 2,750 USD and Solana at 117.93 USD, according to CoinGecko data.
everyone sleeping on the fact this started as a 2022 AIFC pilot. four years from sandbox to 10.58 billion turnover is a decent regulatory speedrun
the National Fund putting 350M into crypto while 1100 p2p platforms got blocked, they want the flows on rails they can watch. SupTech center makes more sense now
320 million to 10.58 billion in two years is insane growth. kazakhstan quietly out here building a real regulated market while everyone watches the US
meanwhile they seized 4.8M usdt from unlicensed platforms. regulated boom and a crackdown running at the same time, classic playbook
1100 platforms blocked in a single year, that is basically the entire telegram p2p market gone. holders had no choice but to go licensed
The 53,000 to 215,000 user jump matters more than the turnover number imo. Real adoption, not just a few whales churning volume
215k users is real but wait till the analytics center on the SupTech platform links wallets to the Anti-Fraud Center. KYC adoption comes with strings
the SupTech wallet linking is the quiet part of this whole story. once the analytics center maps wallets to the anti-fraud center, those 215k KYC users stop being pseudonymous at all. regulated boom with a surveillance tail
320 million to 10.58 billion in two years is wild. guessing a chunk of it is just volume relocating from unregulated venues to licensed exchanges tho
some of it yes, but 215k KYC registered users is real demand, not just shuffled volume. the KASE Solana ETF is the part that got my attention
Solana Superteam handling the dev training side makes sense, Dossanov has been at this for years. And 60 billion tenge combined across licensed operators shows the regulated route actually works there
a KASE wrapped Solana ETF would have sounded like satire two years ago. the astana financial centre is moving faster than most of the EU at this point
350 million from gold and FX reserves into crypto via the National Investment Corporation. that is the actual headline and it is buried halfway down the article
found the NIC 350M line too. gold and FX reserves though, not fresh printing. different risk profile than most sovereign crypto experiments
@Aisha M. its not buried, its the whole thesis. turnover numbers are marketing, a sovereign fund allocation is policy