Tether and Kazakhstan's central bank agree to study a tenge stablecoin

Kazakhstan's central bank will work with the issuer of the largest US dollar stablecoin on whether the country should have a stablecoin of its own. Tether said on October 7 that it had signed a memorandum of understanding with the National Bank of Kazakhstan and the Alatau City Authority covering stablecoins, asset tokenization and decentralized finance.

Under the memorandum, the three will study how stablecoins are issued in other countries, develop a concept and a pilot proposal for a stablecoin pegged to the tenge, Kazakhstan's currency, and draw up a framework for tokenizing assets. Tokenizing means recording ownership of an asset as a token on a blockchain. Tether's Hadron platform may be used for that work, the company said. Workshops on stablecoin issuance and reserve management are also planned.

The agreement commits no one to a launch. CoinDesk reported that it is exploratory and does not amount to a decision to issue the stablecoin. The asset pilot is planned for Alatau, a city with a special legal regime designed in part to encourage financial technology, according to CoinDesk.

The central bank's language was cautious. "Maintaining financial stability, transaction transparency, and robust investor protection remains the paramount priority," Deputy Governor Binur Zhalenov said in Tether's statement.

For now the work is study: a concept and a pilot proposal for the tenge stablecoin, with no commitment to issue one.