Astana, 10 November. The National Bank has for the first time placed short-term notes in tokenized form on the KASE digital financial asset platform: 50 billion tenge was sold at the auction on 9 November, of which 10 billion tenge, or 20%, was tokenized notes, the National Bank said.
Notes of a single issue were offered at the same time in ordinary and tokenized form with common pricing. Investor demand came to 70.2 billion tenge, 1.4 times the supply, and the weighted average yield was 15.72% a year. The notes run for 91 days; settlement and the start of trading are set for 11 November. National Bank Governor Timur Suleimenov called the placement an important step: the country, he said, is moving from building the regulatory and technological base to practical use of tokenization in the domestic capital market, the Telegram channel Tengenomika relayed his Facebook post.
The result closes a question that was open the day before: when the hybrid auction was only announced, the share of the digital part of the issue was not stated. Now it is known: one fifth. At the same conversion by which the exchange valued the whole issue at 111.8 million dollars, the tokenized part comes to about 22 million dollars: that is our calculation. For comparison, the real-estate pilots in Alatau that Suleimenov named in September, Iconic Tower up to 50 million dollars and Birlik up to 10 million dollars, Kapital.kz reported, are still ahead. Deputy Governor Binur Zhalenov said in an interview with Kazinform that retail investors will initially face limits on the amounts they can put into digital shares; he did not name the size of the limits.
How many investors bought the tokenized notes, who they are, whether private individuals are among them and how the tokens will circulate on the secondary market, the report does not say. Nor is it stated whether the yield differed between the two forms: only common pricing is mentioned.
What it means: Tokenization in the Kazakhstani market has moved from pilots to a working stage, but on the most cautious instrument: a short-term government security of 91 days. The digital part takes a fifth of the issue for now, and the main test lies ahead: secondary trading and the arrival of retail investors.
Who benefits: The KASE exchange, which got its first large placement on the digital platform. The National Bank, which shows that the tokenized form has been built into ordinary infrastructure. Investors who bought the securities: demand exceeded supply 1.4 times, and the yield was 15.72% a year.
Background: Tokenization is recording rights to an asset on a digital ledger: a security becomes a token that can be stored and transferred electronically. National Bank notes are short-term securities that it issues to manage liquidity in the banking system.
