Astana, 9 November. The National Bank of Kazakhstan will for the first time hold a hybrid auction: notes worth 50 billion tenge (about 111.8 million dollars) will be sold at the same time in ordinary and digital form on the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE), the exchange said.
Investors will be offered the same security in two formats. The notes run for 91 days and each has a face value of 100 tenge, about 0.22 dollars. Ordinary notes are recorded through the Central Securities Depository, while digital ones are issued on a special KASE platform and exist only electronically. What share of the 50 billion tenge will go out in digital form is not stated.
Tokenization is recording rights to an asset on a digital ledger: real estate, infrastructure or a company’s debt is split into small digital units that can be bought and sold, The Astana Times explained. Issuing tokens requires an operator of a digital financial asset platform: KASE is entered in the National Bank’s register under number 001, Forbes.kz wrote. In the first stage, according to its chairman Adil Mukhamedzhanov, the exchange will concentrate on simple fixed-income instruments, including discount notes. The hybrid auction comes from exactly that family.
National Bank Deputy Governor Binur Zhalenov told Kazinform that Kazakhstanis will initially face limits on the amounts they can put into digital shares of companies and assets: this is how the authorities want to protect retail investors’ money from market risks. A digital share can be bought through licensed platforms and familiar payment apps. He did not name the size of the limits. As starting pilots, he said, the Iconic Tower complex and the Birlik logistics centre in Alatau are being considered, and the first digital issues on KASE, in his view, will be available to investors soon. Companies going through accounting registration at the National Bank are showing interest in tokenizing raw materials, including oil.
The scale of the pilots was named earlier by National Bank Governor Timur Suleimenov: at a government meeting on 15 September he spoke of tokenizing Iconic Tower for up to 50 million dollars and Birlik for up to 10 million dollars by the end of 2026, Kapital.kz reported. For comparison: the National Bank’s notes, at 111.8 million dollars, are almost twice the size of both pilots together (60 million dollars by our calculation).
What it means: The National Bank is testing the digital format on a familiar instrument: not real estate but a short-term government security. Limits for retail investors, the share of the digital part of the issue and the timing of the first real-estate issues have not been disclosed.
Who benefits: Investors who want to try a digital security with a short term and a government issuer: 91 days and a face value of 100 tenge. The KASE exchange, which gets its first large load on the digital platform. The National Bank’s own benefit is not named in the report.
Background: National Bank notes are short-term securities it issues to manage liquidity in the banking system. Tokenization of assets in Kazakhstan is developing under the President’s decree of 7 July 2026 on the digital asset industry, Kapital.kz recalled.
