Kazakhstan has begun to open the crypto market outside the financial center “Astana”. The first company to receive a license under the new rules was Pax Finance.
Now it has the opportunity to officially engage in activities that were previously inaccessible to most market participants: exchanging cryptocurrency, storing clients’ digital assets, opening its own points of presence, and installing crypto ATMs.
Previously, the market was structured differently. Only companies registered in the Astana International Financial Center “Astana” could fully work with cryptocurrency, while the rest of the industry existed in rather vague legal conditions. The new regime expands the field for legal work and brings some operations out of the gray zone.
According to Kursiv, Pax Finance was registered on May 20. Among the company’s founders are representatives of the financial and fintech sectors of Kazakhstan.
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Among them is Arman Bataev, owner of the Telegram channel Finmentor.kz. Before entering the crypto industry, he worked at EY and the Astana International Financial Center “Astana”. Among the project’s co-founders is also Azat Bekmagambetov. He is well known in the local crypto community and previously participated in launching the first accelerator for Web3 projects in Central Asia.
Kazakhstan Makes Crypto Market Legal
Kazakhstan took a special place on the crypto map after China’s mining restrictions. When companies started looking for new sites to place equipment, the republic became one of the main destinations for large miners to relocate.
However, legislation lagged behind industry development. Despite the appearance of the digital assets law in 2023, a full-fledged cryptocurrency market did not emerge in the country. Most operations still took place outside the regulated space.
People bought and sold cryptocurrency through P2P transfers, foreign services, and platforms that were not controlled by local authorities.
Now the authorities have decided to change the situation. First, a new licensing procedure for market participants was launched, and then the National Bank approved additional regulations to make the crypto industry more transparent and bring at least part of the turnover into the legal field.
The first license for Pax Finance became an important signal for the industry. Now crypto exchanges will be able to operate not only within the limited AIFC regime but also in the broader regulated field of Kazakhstan.
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At the same time, the authorities continue to crack down on the illegal market. According to local media, law enforcement has already closed about 130 illegal crypto platforms. Through them, according to authorities, about $127 million passed.
Also, as part of these cases, the state seized assets worth more than $5 million.
A separate problem for Kazakhstan is capital outflow through cryptocurrencies. Authorities have long feared that digital assets are used for cross-border transfers bypassing controls. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev previously demanded to stop the outflow of money from the country.
At the same time, Kazakhstan does not intend to completely close the market. On the contrary, the country is gradually moving toward legalizing crypto payments. The tenge will remain the only legal means of payment, but cryptocurrency holders will be able to pay for goods and services through crypto cards with automatic conversion to fiat.
