A special working group consisting of representatives of the Ministry of Digital Development, the Central Bank and other regulators of Kazakhstan approved the rules for the interaction of the Astana International Financial Center (AIFC) and second-tier bank-based cryptocurrency exchanges.

The Ministry of Digital Development said that this is a pilot project aimed at creating a regulatory framework “to further develop Kazakhstan’s potential as a regional crypto hub.”

The pilot implementation will be implemented throughout 2022, if successful, the authorities will make changes to the legislation. This is expected to help regulate the trading of digital assets in a regulated space and ensure investor rights are protected.

Participants will be AIFC-licensed exchanges in collaboration with second-tier banks. Details were promised to be announced “soon”.

In addition to the Ministry of Digital Finance and the National Bank, the working group included the Financial Market Regulation and Development Agency, the Financial Monitoring Agency, the Kazakhstan Financiers Association, AIFC and those involved in the digital asset. market and banking sector.

Baghdad Musin, Head of the Ministry of Digital Development, stressed that the authorities are not just dealing with the regulation of mining:

“We must make money on the crypto exchange – this is the next level of development of financial technologies. It is necessary to create a full-fledged ecosystem so that digital assets mined through electricity consumption in Kazakhstan can be traded as much as possible on local crypto exchanges and the income remains in the country.”

Recall that in April, the Kazakhstan Financial Market Regulation and Development Agency announced the launch of a pilot project to create and develop exchanges based on AIFC.

In May, Binance signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Digital Development, where it will advise Kazakhstan authorities on the regulation of cryptocurrencies. It was also reported that the Ministry of Digital Development and the company will seek a solution “to integrate the banking infrastructure into the cryptocurrency market”.