The National Bank of Kazakhstan sold short-term notes in the form of digital tokens for the first time at a November 9 auction on the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE). The tokenized notes accounted for 10 billion tenge (about $22.3 million), or one-fifth of the issue’s total face value of 50 billion tenge (about $111.7 million).
The central bank said selling conventional and tokenized notes together allowed it to apply the same pricing rules to both forms and test how the digital platform worked alongside the existing securities market. It sees the trial as a step toward tokenizing other government securities.
According to the auction results, demand reached 70.2 billion tenge at face value, about 40% more than the amount on offer. Because the notes sold at a discount, the accepted bids amounted to 48.1 billion tenge, including 9.6 billion tenge for the tokenized notes. The weighted average annual yield was 15.72%.
KASE set November 11, 2026, as the settlement date and the start of the notes’ 91-day term. Redemption is scheduled to begin on February 10, 2027.
The central bank is responsible for repaying all noteholders. KASE records ownership of the tokenized notes on its digital platform, and the Central Securities Depository keeps a corresponding record. The KASE Clearing Centre handles clearing and settlement for trades made at the auction.
Kazakhstan’s rules for issuing and trading digital financial assets took effect on May 1, 2026. The central bank said KASE was the first company it registered to operate both a digital financial asset platform and a digital asset trading platform.
In April, Adil Mukhamejanov, chair of KASE’s management board, told the Kazakhstan Finance Day forum in New York that the exchange was working to digitize existing financial instruments and issue new securities directly in digital form. On October 27, telecommunications company ALTA Telecom issued interest-bearing digital securities on the exchange’s platform.
