Kazakhstan is considering allowing crypto exchanges
to create bank accounts, Kazakhstan will establish a pilot project for crypto exchanges in the special economic zone of the Astana International Finance Centre, in addition to its rapid progress toward legalizing crypto mining.
On Thursday, Kazakhstan's Ministry of Digital Development, Innovations, and Aerospace Industry unveiled a trial initiative involving cryptocurrency exchanges and a few local banks.
The working group, which included representatives from the Ministry of Digital Development, the Financial Monitoring Agency, the Association of Financiers, the Astana International Finance Centre, and financial and crypto market stakeholders, formed the regulations for that collaboration. The exchanges that have been granted a license by the newly constituted Astana Financial Service Authority will be part of the pilot project, which will run through the end of 2022. It will serve as a blueprint for Kazakhstan's future development as a regional crypto hub. On the AIFC website, detailed instructions should be available soon.
Nurhat Kushimov, the chairman of AFSA, stated that his committee's objective is to establish an atmosphere in which trustworthy and sustainable businesses may operate:
“The AFSA is the only regulatory body in Kazakhstan that oversees the operations of fintech businesses. We conduct a thorough background check on fintech companies before granting them a license, and then we keep a close eye on them.”
"It is vital to construct a full ecosystem so that the digital assets that have been mined using Kazakhstan's electric energy are exchanged to the largest degree possible at local exchanges, and the profit stays in the nation," said Bagdat Musin, Kazakhstan's minister of digital development.
The modifications to the national tax law to enforce a crypto mining tax connected to the power costs spent by mining firms were passed in first reading by the Kazakh parliament on May 25.
On the same day, Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange, inked an MoU with the Ministry of Digital Development, indicating that it will advise on advancing the republic's legal framework and regulatory policy for crypto-assets.