Tether and Kazakhstan Study Tenge-Backed Stablecoin in New Partnership

Tether has signed a memorandum of understanding with Kazakhstan’s National Bank and the Alatau City Authority to explore a stablecoin linked to the Kazakh tenge. The agreement also covers real-world asset tokenization and decentralized finance.

The deal does not launch a new stablecoin. Instead, the parties will study international issuance models, identify potential uses and prepare a concept for a possible tenge-backed pilot. The agreement does not name an issuer, blockchain, reserve structure or launch date.

The move adds Tether to Kazakhstan’s broader push to build regulated digital-asset infrastructure. The country introduced a comprehensive digital-asset framework in May 2026 that recognizes money-backed stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets within its regulatory system.

Stablecoin Pilot Takes Shape

The planned project would examine how a digital token could track the value of Kazakhstan’s national currency. Tether and the National Bank will also study reserve management and stablecoin issuance practices used in other markets.

Kazakhstan has already tested a tenge-denominated stablecoin. In September 2025, the National Bank launched a sandbox pilot involving Intebix, Solana, Mastercard and Eurasian Bank.

The new Tether initiative therefore represents an additional model rather than the country’s first experiment with a tenge stablecoin.

Tokenization Adds a Second Track

The memorandum also calls for an asset-tokenization framework. The parties will identify priority asset categories and design a model for converting real-world assets into blockchain-based tokens.

A pilot could take place in Alatau, with Tether’s Hadron platform identified as a potential technology. The parties also plan workshops covering stablecoin markets, issuance, reserve management and distributed-ledger technology.

For Kazakhstan, the partnership reflects a wider effort to develop digital financial infrastructure under regulatory oversight. For Tether, it expands the company’s work beyond USDT into tokenization and country-level financial infrastructure.

The next stage will depend on the proposed pilot and regulatory review. Until those steps occur, the agreement remains an exploratory framework rather than a confirmed tenge stablecoin launch.