The Republic of Kazakhstan is actively developing the digital asset industry, creating transparent and balanced conditions for market participants. The country's legislative framework regulates the activities of digital miners, digital mining pools, and digital asset exchanges.
On February 6, 2023, the Law «On Digital Assets in the Republic of Kazakhstan» came into force. According to this Law, digital assets are classified as secured and unsecured.
Secured digital asset – a digital asset registered through a digital platform for the storage and exchange of secured digital assets, which meets the requirements for a secured digital asset.
Unsecured digital asset – a digital asset that does not meet the requirements for a secured digital asset.
Issuance and turnover of secured digital assets
The Committee for Artificial Intelligence and Innovation Development of the Ministry of Digital Development, Innovation and Aerospace Industry issues permits for the issuance and circulation of secured digital assets, as well as maintains a state register of persons engaged in the issuance of secured digital assets.
A secured digital asset must certify the right to tangible, intellectual services and assets (other than money and securities), have a decision on the issue, not be a monetary unit of account or a financial instrument, contain information about the issuer, confirm property and (or) intellectual rights before its formation, as well as record the movement of the asset or rights to property in the blockchain.
In order to receive a government service for issuing permits for the issuance and circulation of secured digital assets, it is necessary to send an application through the Information system «State Database «E-Licensing».
Digital Mining
Digital mining activities in the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan are allowed to individual entrepreneurs and legal entities of the Republic of Kazakhstan on the basis of a license for digital mining activities issued to the applicant for a period of three years.
Digital mining is carried out by a digital miner through an accredited digital mining pool using a digital mining data center.
A license to carry out digital mining activities is issued for the following subspecies:
Subspecies I – is a digital miner who owns or legally owns a data processing center.
Subspecies II – is a digital miner who does not own a data center, but places his equipment in it.
Government services for the accreditation of digital mining pools, the maintenance of a register of hardware and software complexes (HSC) for digital mining, as well as licensing of digital mining activities (for both subspecies) are provided to individual entrepreneurs or legal entities submitting an application through the information system «State Database «E-licensing»:
You can view the current list of licensed digital miners and accredited digital mining pools at the following link.
Issuance and turnover of unsecured digital assets
The issuance and turnover of unsecured digital assets, as well as the activities of digital asset exchanges for unsecured digital assets, are carried out only on the territory of the Astana International Financial Center (AIFC).
The requirements for digital asset exchanges and the procedure for licensing them in the AIFC are determined by acts of the AIFC. It is also allowed to perform transactions with digital assets on trading platforms licensed by the AIFC Committee on Financial Services Regulation to provide financial services with digital assets on the territory of the AIFC.
You can view the register of companies licensed by the AIFC Financial Services Regulatory Committee to operate with digital assets on the territory of the AIFC at the following link.
Note: You can familiarize yourself with the available tools on existing exchanges by going to the exchange's own page.
To study the list of digital assets approved by the AIFC Financial Services Regulatory Committee for trading, follow the link.
Government agencies continue to work to create a sustainable ecosystem for digital assets, maintaining a balance between innovation and regulation.