Stablecoin issuer Tether announced on October 7 that it had signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the National Bank of Kazakhstan (NBK) and the Alatau City Authority (ACA). The three organizations plan to jointly study potential uses for stablecoin development, asset tokenization and decentralized finance (DeFi).
The agreement includes studying international stablecoin issuance models and use cases, and preparing a concept and pilot proposal for a stablecoin linked to Kazakhstan’s currency, the tenge.
The parties will also work on a framework for asset tokenization. They plan to select the asset classes to be tokenized first, design a conceptual model and pursue a pilot in Alatau, where a special legal framework applies. They will also consider using Tether’s Hadron tokenization platform, but its adoption has not been decided.
Training will be provided to central bank and other government personnel on stablecoin issuance and reserve-management models and the tokenization of real-world assets. Binur Zhalenov, deputy governor of the National Bank of Kazakhstan, said maintaining financial stability, transaction transparency and investor protection would remain the top priority while studying international examples.
CoinDesk described the agreement as exploratory and said it was not a decision to issue a tenge-linked stablecoin. The announcement did not identify the issuer, reserve structure or a specific implementation timetable.