The National Bank of Kazakhstan has signed a memorandum of understanding with stablecoin issuer Tether and Alatau City to jointly study the feasibility of a tenge-backed stablecoin, according to the announcement framing the deal as a research and evaluation initiative rather than a product launch.

The agreement places Kazakhstan's central bank among the first monetary authorities in the region to formally engage Tether, the issuer of USDT, the largest dollar-pegged stablecoin by circulation. The MoU also names Alatau as a counterparty, anchoring the initiative to the special economic zone that Kazakh authorities have positioned as a hub for digital asset and fintech activity.

What does the MoU actually commit?

Under the framework, the parties will study the technical, regulatory and economic prerequisites for issuing a stablecoin denominated in tenge, Kazakhstan's national currency. The memorandum establishes cooperation on research; it does not authorize an issuance, set a launch date, or commit the National Bank of Kazakhstan to deploying a tokenized form of the national currency on any specific blockchain.

The arrangement signals a two-track approach by Kazakh authorities. The National Bank has previously explored a central bank digital currency, and the tenge stablecoin study now adds a privately issued, fiat-referenced instrument to the policy conversation. For Tether, the agreement extends a pattern of working with state-aligned partners in emerging markets, where dollar-pegged USDT already dominates trading pairs against local currencies.

Why a tenge stablecoin?

Kazakhstan's government has spent several years building a regulatory perimeter for digital assets, including a licensing regime for crypto exchanges operating within the Astana International Financial Centre. A tenge-referenced stablecoin would target a specific structural gap: most onshore trading and settlement in the region runs through dollar-denominated tokens, which exposes users to foreign-exchange conversion costs and leaves the national currency with no meaningful on-chain representation.

The involvement of Alatau connects the study to Kazakhstan's broader effort to convert its special economic zones into destinations for blockchain infrastructure, mining-adjacent data centers and tokenization pilots. A viable tenge stablecoin would give regulated businesses in those zones a settlement instrument that integrates with domestic banking rails rather than circumventing them.

What comes next?

The parties have not published a timeline for conclusions, a pilot issuance, or a technical standard such as which chain or token format a tenge stablecoin might use. The MoU's scope is preparatory: feasibility analysis, exchange of expertise, and assessment of how a tenge-referenced token would fit within Kazakhstan's existing payment and supervisory frameworks.

The practical test will arrive if and when the study converts into a formal proposal. Any tenge stablecoin would require the National Bank to define reserve custody arrangements, redemption guarantees and anti-money-laundering controls before issuance could proceed, and those design decisions, rather than the MoU itself, will determine whether Kazakhstan moves from studying tokenized tenge to circulating it.