Overview of the Agreement

Tether, the company behind the USDT stablecoin, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the National Bank of Kazakhstan (NBK) and the Alatau City Authority (ACA). The agreement sets up a framework to explore stablecoin use cases, asset tokenization, and decentralized finance.

What the Agreement Covers

Within the framework, the parties plan to work toward a stablecoin tied to the tenge. They also intend to launch tokenization pilots in Alatau City, a planned innovation district positioning itself as a fintech and smart-city hub.

Tokenization and Stablecoin Use Cases

Tokenization means turning a real-world asset, like a building or a loan, into digital tokens that can be issued, tracked, and traded on a blockchain. The agreement goes beyond the technology itself, including a focus on studying international models for how stablecoins get issued and regulated. It also covers educational efforts, such as workshops.

Pilot Project and Cooperation

The agreement includes a $60 million pilot project, with two projects making up the figure: the Iconic Tower and the Birlik logistics center. The Tether agreement also follows a separate MoU signed just days earlier by the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE) focused on building platforms for digital financial assets (DFAs). That earlier framework also covers multi-currency stablecoin settlement tools.

Why Kazakhstan is Building this Way

The approach is notable for its layering, with the central bank bringing monetary authority, the stock exchange bringing market infrastructure, and Alatau City offering itself as the testing ground. Tether brings experience running a stablecoin at scale and a tokenization platform it can offer to partners.

Potential Implications

Stablecoins today are overwhelmingly dollar-denominated, so a local-currency version could give the tenge a presence in on-chain finance that it currently lacks. The MoU is non-binding by nature, and the stablecoin itself remains a goal the parties will explore rather than a launched product. The $60 million plan is described as up to that amount.

Watchlist

There are a few concrete things to watch from here. The first is whether the Iconic Tower and Birlik logistics center tokenizations actually close before the end of 2026. The second is which platform they use. If Hadron is chosen, it would mark a clear operational win for Tether. The third is how the tenge stablecoin work develops alongside the KASE settlement tools.