Kazakhstan launches crypto cards

On June 3, 2025, in Almaty, the National Bank of Kazakhstan held a meeting with representatives of banks, cryptocurrency exchanges, and FinTech companies, during which the status of implementing projects to launch innovative financial services based on tokenization and digital assets was discussed. During the dialogue, issues related to the integration of digital assets into the country's financial system and further development of the corresponding regulatory framework were reviewed.

During the meeting, the implementation of the "crypto-card" project was launched — payment cards that allow consumers to make cashless transactions linked to wallets at licensed providers of digital asset services at the International Financial Center "Astana". This solution ensures the possibility of safe and convenient integration of the circulation of digital assets into the existing payment infrastructure.

The "crypto-card" mechanism involves selling the client's digital assets on the IFCA crypto market at the moment of making a payment transaction, with immediate crediting of their value to the "crypto-card", which is a standard payment card linked to the client's bank account. In other words, payment will actually be made using real money after the immediate sale of crypto-assets. Thus, the payment operation will be conducted in currency after the immediate use of the balance of the crypto-wallet on the side of the licensed crypto-provider of the IFCA. The immediacy of settlements will be ensured through the crypto-fiat integration of the bank and the IFCA crypto-provider.

In 2025, a number of pilot projects in the field of digital assets are planned, including:

— issuance of stablecoins backed by the national currency, including the digital tenge, for settlement operations with digital assets
— tokenization of financial assets, real estate, and issuance of tokens equivalent to securities
— organization of systems for accounting and storage of basic collateral for digital financial assets
— organization of services for exchange operations with crypto-assets and storage of crypto-assets, as well as other innovative financial services.

Together with interested government agencies, the National Bank has developed a draft legislative amendment that ensures the expansion of the circulation of unbacked digital assets and creates a regulatory framework for digital financial assets.

Source: nationalbank