Kazakhstan to create state crypto reserve

Key points:

• The President of Kazakhstan has proposed the creation of a national digital asset fund to accumulate a strategic crypto reserve.
• The digital tenge is to be extended to the republican and local budgets.
• The government has been tasked with developing a program of investment in high-tech sectors of the economy.

During his address to the people of Kazakhstan, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev announced the need to establish a state digital asset fund to form a strategic crypto reserve. He added:

“Under the auspices of the National Bank’s investment corporation, it is necessary to create a State Digital Asset Fund, which will consolidate a strategic crypto reserve, including the most promising assets in the emerging digital financial ecosystem.”

In June, the National Bank of Kazakhstan already supported the idea of creating a state reserve of cryptocurrencies. The head of the regulator, Timur Suleimenov, noted that it could be formed from confiscated cryptocurrencies and assets mined by miners with state participation.

Tokayev on CBDC

On the instructions of the president, state bodies should focus their efforts on increasing the areas of use of the digital tenge. Tokayev explained:

“It is necessary to accelerate the formation of a full-fledged ecosystem of digital assets. This is facilitated by the introduction of the digital tenge, which is already being used to finance projects from the National Fund. Now we need to scale up the use of the digital tenge in the republican and local budgets, as well as in the budgets of state-owned holding companies.”

Other instructions from the president

Tokayev instructed the government, together with the National Bank, to develop an investment program for high-tech sectors of the economy worth up to $1 billion.

He also demanded to speed up the adoption of a new law on banks, which should:

• take into account technological changes,
• strengthen competition and attract new players,
• stimulate the development of fintech and the liberalization of digital asset turnover.

The government, together with the Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market, needs to carefully work out the draft law. The president called on lawmakers to adopt it before the end of the year.