Kazakhstan has shut down 130 illegal crypto exchanges.
Date: 2025-10-09 Author: Gabriel Deangelo Categories: IN WORLD
Kazakhstan has shut down 130 cryptocurrency platforms operating without a license. During the operation, digital assets worth $16.7 million were seized, and evidence of possible money laundering was established. This was announced by Kairat Bizhanov, Deputy Chairman of the Financial Monitoring Agency (AFM), during a government meeting.
According to current legislation, only crypto exchanges that have received an official license from the Astana Financial Services Authority (AFSA) and are integrated with Kazakh banks are permitted to operate in the country. All platforms operating without such permission are considered illegal.
AFM representatives note that illegal cryptocurrency transactions remain one of the main threats to the country's financial security. In 2024, the agency uncovered 81 shadow schemes with a total turnover of over 24 billion tenge (approximately $43 million). However, ATMs are still considered one of the most vulnerable links in the financial system.
Bizhanov emphasized that despite the measures taken, cash withdrawal volumes continue to grow. Since the beginning of the year, citizens have withdrawn 13.2 trillion tenge ($24.1 billion), a trillion more than the previous year. This trend is raising concerns among regulators, as anonymous transfers allow the identity of the sender and recipient to be concealed.
To minimize risks, AFM, together with the National Bank of Kazakhstan, introduced a number of new rules. Now, when topping up a card with an amount exceeding 500,000 tenge ($913), users are required to verify their identity through a mobile app and provide an individual identification number. Banks are required to store video recordings of ATMs for at least 180 days, and biometric identification—using facial and fingerprint recognition—will be used for all cash transactions.
These steps are aimed at increasing the transparency of financial flows and limiting the shadow trade of cryptocurrencies. Authorities hope that the new measures will significantly reduce the number of illegal transactions and strengthen trust in the regulated digital asset market.
It was previously reported that Kazakhstan launched a pilot version of the national stablecoin Evo (KZTE), pegged to the tenge. This project is part of a strategy to create a secure and transparent ecosystem for digital asset transactions within the country.
