The National Bank of Kazakhstan said on Monday that it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Binance Investments Co. providing for the joint development of a regional settlement hub for the Binance group in Kazakhstan. The regulator said the hub would service international payments and money transfers, including settlements arising from digital asset transactions conducted by clients of the global Binance group across Central Asia, the Commonwealth of Independent States and Eastern Europe. Implementation of the project involves establishing a Binance group entity in Kazakhstan together with the supporting infrastructure, and subsequently obtaining a National Bank licence to operate as a first-category payment organisation. The National Bank said the project would allow part of the group's regional operations to be transferred to Kazakhstan and a significant portion of clients in the region to be serviced through the Kazakh jurisdiction.
The memorandum was signed on 4 September as one of three memoranda Binance announced that day, covering payment infrastructure, digital assets and investment instruments, signed with the National Bank, the Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development, and the Astana International Financial Centre. Those documents included provisions to explore the issuance of a stablecoin in Kazakhstan, to expand infrastructure for payments involving digital assets, and to refine tax and judicial approaches governing the sector. The Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development said the agreements were signed following a meeting in Astana between Deputy Prime Minister Zhaslan Madiyev and Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, at which a partnership between Binance Pay and Alatau City Bank was also presented.
LICENSING PATHWAY AND REGULATORY STRUCTURE
The first-category payment organisation licence sought by the prospective Binance entity carries direct access to the National Bank's payment and financial infrastructure, allowing the holder to operate without bank intermediation and to provide a broad range of payment services to individuals and businesses. The category is a recently created classification within Kazakhstan's non-bank payment services framework. Holders may provide full payment processing services and connect digital asset transactions to traditional currency systems, but they may not accept customer deposits or extend loans, confining the permission strictly to payments activity. The National Bank said legislative changes governing digital assets, together with the introduction of this new class of financial market participant, had made the project possible.
The settlement operation would sit alongside Binance's existing footprint in the country under a separate supervisory regime. Binance already operates in Kazakhstan through Binance Kazakhstan, a digital asset platform regulated by the Astana Financial Services Authority within the Astana International Financial Centre. The proposed payments entity would instead be licensed by the National Bank. Binance said the parties had prepared a roadmap covering the phased development of payment infrastructure, licensing and the launch of new products.
NEXT STEPS
The memorandum establishes intent rather than a completed arrangement: incorporation of the entity, construction of the infrastructure and the grant of the licence all remain items on the implementation plan. The memorandum was signed on the National Bank's side by Deputy Governor Binur Zhalenov.
The stablecoin discussions remain at an exploratory stage.