Overview
- Tether, the National Bank of Kazakhstan and the Alatau City Authority signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding on Oct. 7, 2026 to jointly study a tenge‑pegged stablecoin and frameworks for tokenizing real-world assets.
- The agreement calls for technical studies and capacity building through workshops on issuance models, reserve design, distributed ledgers and pilot proposals while stopping short of naming an issuer, blockchain, reserve model or launch date.
- Alatau City is slated as the sandbox for tokenization pilots with Kazakhstan targeting up to $60 million in tokenized projects by the end of 2026, including the Iconic Tower (up to $50 million) and the Birlik logistics center (up to $10 million).
- The MoU builds on Kazakhstan’s recent digital‑asset work, including comprehensive NBK rules that took effect on May 1, 2026 and a prior tenge pilot called Evo run inside the central bank’s sandbox in September 2025.
- Next steps include preparing concept papers and pilot proposals, deciding whether to use Tether’s Hadron platform, and keeping financial stability, transaction transparency and investor protection as guiding priorities while regulators evaluate real‑world effects on payments and market oversight.