Kazakhstan Digital Tenge

According to the National Bank of Kazakhstan and the National Payment Corporation of Kazakhstan (NPCK), the Digital Tenge is a retail tokenised two-tier CBDC built on R3 Corda (open permissioned DLT) with OpenWay Way4 for card processing. The first retail transaction occurred November 15, 2023, at the XI Kazakhstan Financial Congress using a CBDC card on a POS terminal (Visa/Mastercard partnership). The initial pilot launched May 2021 on R3 Corda with Kaspi Bank and Eurasian Bank. During the limited production phase through end-2025, 336.6 billion Digital Tenges were issued (~US$690M equivalent) with over 1,000 transactions across eight pilot scenarios. Participating banks include Halyk Bank, Eurasian Bank, Kaspi Bank, Bank CenterCredit, and Altyn Bank. Key use cases include financing infrastructure projects from the National Fund — the Dostyk-Moynty Railway and Taldykorgan-Usharal gas pipeline — using digital currency marking to verify public expenditure allocation. Two types of programmability were tested: 'marking' (expenditure auditability) and 'holding' (conditional payments via smart contracts). According to the IMF, the Digital Tenge is deliberately non-interest-bearing to avoid deposit competition; quantitative restrictions on wallet conversions are under study but not yet implemented. Card integration supports NFC contactless, ATM withdrawal, e-commerce, and Apple/Google/Samsung Pay. President Tokayev signed the Law on Banks and Banking Activities on December 25, 2025, granting the Digital Tenge legal status as a lawful means of payment. A roadmap for full-scale implementation across public expenditure is planned for April 2026.

Updated: Mar 28, 2026