Kazakhstan’s new digital-asset decree puts stablecoin settlement inside national industrial policy

Kazakhstan has taken a more integrated approach to digital-asset policy than most markets manage in a single announcement. A new presidential decree lays out a state-backed plan to develop the country’s digital-assets industry by modernizing payments infrastructure, enabling regulated use of digital assets and stablecoins in cross-border settlements, expanding tokenized financial markets and tying crypto-sector growth to energy and tax policy. The significance is not simply that stablecoins were mentioned in a policy document. It is that Kazakhstan is trying to place digital-asset market structure inside a broader economic strategy rather than treating it as a narrow technology experiment.

The official announcement from the Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development frames the decree as a foundation for a modern and transparent ecosystem for digital financial services. The document was developed with the National Bank and in cooperation with the Astana International Financial Centre, which gives the package more institutional weight than a stand-alone ministry initiative. One of the clearest policy priorities is payments: the decree explicitly calls for mechanisms that would allow digital assets and stablecoins to be used in cross-border settlements, with the stated aim of opening additional channels for export and import activity. That is an important distinction. The government is not presenting stablecoins only as a crypto-market instrument, but as a potential trade and settlement tool for the real economy.

The decree also tries to redraw where activity takes place. Officials say they want to encourage a shift from foreign unregulated platforms toward licensed domestic service providers, including through a framework for voluntary disclosure of digital assets previously held offshore. At the same time, the policy package proposes tax incentives for individuals who transact through Kazakhstan’s regulated infrastructure, including a plan to exempt related income from personal income tax. Taken together, those measures amount to a repatriation strategy. Rather than simply banning offshore behavior, the government is trying to make locally supervised rails more attractive from both a legal and economic perspective.

Energy policy is the other major piece, and it shows that Kazakhstan is thinking about digital assets as an industrial demand center as well as a financial one. The decree introduces a mechanism for associated petroleum gas and natural gas from oil and gas fields to be used for autonomous electricity generation when those resources are not otherwise needed for state purposes. That power can then support digital mining operations. Separately, an earlier ministry release set out the country’s 70/30 model for energy-infrastructure modernization, under which up to 70% of newly added generating capacity can be sold directly to major consumers such as data centers and digital miners, while the remaining 30% is supplied into the national power system. The connection between the two policies is important: Kazakhstan is trying to match digital-asset growth with power-capacity planning rather than pretending the energy question can be handled later.

For RWA markets, the most interesting part may be what comes beyond stablecoin settlement. The decree also outlines plans to develop tokenized financial instruments and national trading infrastructure. That suggests Kazakhstan sees onchain finance not only as a payments story but as a capital-markets buildout. In practical terms, tokenized markets do not scale on issuance alone. They need recognized legal wrappers, licensed operators, settlement rails, bank connectivity, trading venues and policy certainty around where assets are held and who can intermediate them. By grouping stablecoins, tokenized instruments and domestic platform licensing together, Kazakhstan is signaling that those pieces should be designed as one system rather than as separate policy tracks.

There are still meaningful execution questions. A decree can set direction, but it does not by itself create reserve rules for stablecoins, determine which institutions may issue or distribute tokenized products, guarantee bank participation or ensure that cross-border counterparties will accept these rails at scale. The effort to shift activity back onshore will also depend on whether domestic providers can offer deep enough liquidity, credible custody and a regulatory environment that market participants trust. That is especially true if the government wants businesses to move assets from familiar offshore venues into local channels that are still developing.

Even with those caveats, the policy package stands out because it treats digital assets as linked systems of payments, market structure, energy and taxation. Many jurisdictions talk about becoming a hub while regulating each piece in isolation. Kazakhstan is attempting something more coordinated. If the decree is followed by workable rulebooks and credible licensed infrastructure, the country could become a regional test case for how stablecoin settlement and tokenized-finance markets are built under an explicitly national strategy. For RWA observers, that is the real story: a government trying to turn digital-asset policy from an edge case into part of the state’s economic operating model.