According to a report released on February 3 by the National Bank of Kazakhstan (NBK) and Binance. The bank has started a pilot project for the digital tenge. The paper specifically focused on decentralized finance (DeFi) in Central Asia and the Commonwealth of Independent States while also examining worldwide approaches to digital asset regulation, the industry, and the use of digital assets.

Berik Sholpankupov, the deputy governor of the NBK, described the bank’s concept of a “partnership between Traditional Finance and DeFi” that might broaden financial inclusion and promote global trade in his report’s introduction. And he said:

“In Kazakhstan, we began a practical Research and development project to investigate how our CBDC – Digital Tenge, can bridge the world of crypto with traditional fiat payments foundation.”

The NBK is on schedule with the plans outlined in its official roadmap, according to Sholpankupov’s statement. 2020 saw the launch of Kazakhstan’s digital tenge project. The project is scheduled to last until the year 2025. The study additionally stated:

“A Digital Tenge CDBC drive [… ] Is as of now in a pilot phase utilizing the controlled environment, genuine consumers and merchants. As of now, BNB Chain and NBK are testing CBDC combination with the [BNB] public decentralized blockchain to bridge the hole considerably further between traditional banking and crypto ecosystem.”

In October 2022, Kazakhstan’s Astana Financial Services Authority (AFSA) granted Binance a perpetual license to run a platform for digital assets and offer custody services. Later that month, the NBK announced that the CBDC would be integrated on the Binance BNB chain in 2022.

The Astana International Financial Centre’s (ASIC) 2018-developed Digital Asset Trading Facility (DATF) regulatory framework was flawed. According to a consultation paper that the ASFA released on Jan. 27. The research made recommendations for additional risk reduction techniques as well as prospective regulatory framework modifications. One of the biggest Bitcoin miners in the world is Kazakhstan.