Crypto license in Kazakhstan

What the two routes cost

The surcharge of USD 2,800 is added to the base fee for the activity — it is not the whole price. Supervision adds the same amount each year. Dealing as principal drops to USD 50,000 in capital where the firm only matches client orders and the regulator accepts the lower figure.

Limits that reach your customers

• A national operator tests every client with at least ten questions and a pass mark no lower than eighty per cent; a retake is possible after thirty days.
• A client who does not pass is capped at seven million tenge a day on purchases and the same on sales; a client who passes has no cap.
• Through the Astana centre, brokerage for a retail investor resident in Kazakhstan is capped at the equivalent of a thousand dollars a month.
• Digital asset portfolio management for such residents is open only to professional investors holding at least a hundred and fifty thousand dollars in financial assets.
• On a transfer with missing sender or recipient details the operation is suspended for at least forty-eight hours, then refused if nothing arrives.

Who may hold either licence

• The national operator is a joint stock company or a limited liability partnership, and its share capital is formed before the application.
• Its executive officer is a resident of Kazakhstan with higher education, and a person who ran a failed financial institution is barred.
• Founders and beneficial owners may be residents or not, but not people without a sound business reputation or registered in a country weak on financial crime standards.
• A trading facility operator in the centre appoints a senior executive officer, a finance officer, a compliance officer, a money laundering reporting officer and a chief information technology officer.
• Privacy tokens are prohibited in the centre outright, and utility and non-fungible tokens are closed to all but custodians.

The wider country picture sits on our Kazakhstan page.

Two regimes, and your presence picks one

The national licence from the central bank

For serving people in Kazakhstan: capital in tenge, one exclusive line of business, a fixed list of assets and a decision inside twenty working days.

The licence inside the Astana centre

For serving clients anywhere from a centre with its own acting law: capital and fees in dollars, and access to local retail rationed by rule.

The central bank's testing regime

A separate route for models that fit neither, where activity runs under a special regulatory arrangement instead of a licence.

Sources: Law of Kazakhstan on digital assets, arts 12-1 and 12-2, as amended from 1 May 2026 (adilet.zan.kz); National Bank resolution No. 45 of 29 April 2026; AIFC Rules on Digital Asset Activities, tables 1 and 2; AIFC Fees Rules, tables 1.1 and 6.1; AIFC Rules on Currency Regulation, Schedule 2; afsa.aifc.kz.