Tether and Kazakhstan explore tenge stablecoin, asset tokens

Tether, Kazakhstan’s National Bank and the Alatau City Authority have signed an agreement to study a tenge-backed stablecoin and develop a pilot for tokenized real-world assets in Alatau.

The memorandum calls for research into international models for issuing stablecoins, potential use cases and a proposal for a tenge-pegged stablecoin pilot. The parties will also examine reserve management, transaction transparency and other requirements for the proposed digital currency.

The agreement provides for an asset-tokenization framework. The parties will identify assets that could be represented as digital tokens and consider a pilot in Alatau using Tether’s Hadron platform, which supports the issuance and management of tokenized assets.

Tether, the National Bank and the city authority will organize workshops and training on stablecoin issuance, reserve management and real-world asset tokenization. The program will examine how these systems could operate within Kazakhstan’s financial and regulatory framework.

According to Binur Zhalenov, deputy governor of the National Bank of Kazakhstan, the central bank will review international approaches to stablecoins and asset tokenization while considering financial stability, transaction transparency and investor protection.

Kazakhstan has introduced initiatives covering stablecoins, asset tokenization, crypto payments and mining. In September, the government approved a 65-measure plan covering 10 areas of the digital-asset industry. The plan includes measures related to real-world asset tokenization, digital payments, international settlements and crypto mining.

The government also instructed the Energy Ministry and the Digital Development Ministry to develop a mechanism for using gas- and coal-fired power plants to supply mining centers. Kazakhstan ranked among the 10 largest Bitcoin-producing countries in 2025, according to the government.

The announcement reported that Kazakhstan’s National Strategic Crypto Reserve had reached $700 million and that 34 digital-asset projects had completed testing in the central bank’s regulatory sandbox. It also estimated that the government held 3,544 Bitcoin, worth about $294 million.