Kazakhstan's central bank has signed an agreement with Tether to study the potential issuance of a stablecoin tied to the Kazakhstani tenge and to develop frameworks for tokenizing real-world assets on blockchain networks.
The National Bank of Kazakhstan, Tether, and the Alatau City Authority signed a memorandum of understanding to explore stablecoins, asset tokenization, and decentralized finance. The agreement is exploratory in nature and does not commit the parties to issuing a stablecoin or adopting any specific technology.
Stablecoin Study
One focus of the partnership will be a potential stablecoin pegged to the tenge. The parties plan to study how similar tokens operate in other jurisdictions, identify possible use cases, and prepare a proposal for a pilot program.
Asset Tokenization
The partnership also addresses tokenization, which creates blockchain-based representations of assets such as bonds and real estate, potentially enabling their transfer, trading, and use as collateral through digital networks. The group will identify suitable asset types and plan a pilot in Alatau, a city operating under a special legal regime designed to encourage financial technology development.
Tether's Hadron platform, which provides infrastructure for issuing and managing tokenized assets, is one technology being considered for the project.
Tether's Background
Tether is the issuer of USDT, the world's largest U.S. dollar stablecoin with approximately 140 billion dollars in circulation. The company also issues XAUT, a tokenized gold product with roughly 3.3 billion dollars in value, backed by physical bullion held in Swiss vaults. The company has been expanding beyond stablecoins into energy, payments, commodities, and tokenization infrastructure.
Training and Workshops
Tether and Kazakh authorities plan to conduct workshops on stablecoin reserves, issuance, and tokenization for central bank staff and other government agencies.
