Chairman of the National Bank Timur Suleimenov disagreed with the opinion that Kazakhstan lost the competition to other countries in the cryptocurrency market due to strict regulation. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.

During a conversation with journalists, the chairman of the National Bank, Timur Suleimenov, was asked whether the regulator admits that Kazakhstan lost the competition to other countries in the crypto market due to overly strict regulation.

The head of the National Bank stated that he does not share this assessment.

"In my opinion, there is definitely no strict regulation of the crypto market. Our regulation in the AIFC appeared in 2022. We have said many times that it is quite open and progressive," he said.

According to him, for Kazakhstan, the origin of funds is more important than the volumes passing through the country.

"Just chasing after money turnover, the origin of which is not always clear, is not our task. We are at a level of development where we need capital that can show its origin so that no questions arise," the head of the National Bank believes.

Suleimenov emphasized that the authorities pay special attention to the transparency of financial flows. According to him, investments should bring real benefits to Kazakhstan's economy.

"We take all these issues very seriously. We are not chasing after what just lies there... Any investment should bring added value within our country. Just chasing numbers that came in and out of our country brings nothing useful to Kazakhstan. This is our basic setting, the setting given to us by the head of state," he said.

Earlier, former chairman of the Ak Zhol party Azat Peruashev stated that Kazakhstan had missed about eight years of crypto industry development.

Speaking in May at the Solana Summit Kazakhstan 2026 forum in Almaty, he said that back in 2017 he discussed the prospects of digital assets with Chinese colleagues. According to him, despite the official ban on cryptocurrencies in China, that country was already the largest issuer and the largest market for bitcoin.

After returning to Kazakhstan, the Ak Zhol party proposed legalizing and regulating the digital asset market. However, according to Peruashev, the National Bank then took the opposite position, causing the country, in his opinion, to lose several years of digital economy development.

In February 2025, the Ak Zhol faction again proposed creating a crypto bank, noting that a significant portion of digital asset turnover in Kazakhstan is outside the legal field beyond the Astana International Financial Centre.

At the end of January 2025, at an expanded government meeting, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev emphasized the need to create infrastructure for the legal circulation of digital assets in Kazakhstan. At that time, cryptocurrency transactions were only allowed on licensed AIFC exchanges. However, according to experts, only 5% of Kazakh crypto investors used these platforms, while the rest preferred to work in the "gray zone."

At the end of May 2025, the National Bank and the Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market developed legislative amendments. The regulators decided to introduce a new category of market participants – crypto exchangers, which will conduct operations to exchange cryptocurrencies for money.

In mid-November 2025, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev signed the law "On Amendments and Additions to Certain Legislative Acts of the Republic on Artificial Intelligence and Digitalization."

The law regulates the circulation of unsecured digital assets on the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan, not only on the territory of the Astana International Financial Centre.

Kursiv reported that the country has already opened the first licensed crypto exchanger, and Alatau City Bank has connected cryptocurrency payments via QR codes and POS terminals of its bank. The head of the National Bank said that in the future, other banks in Kazakhstan will also introduce cryptocurrency payments.