Kazakhstan to build central bank digital currency on BNB Chain

In an announcement on Twitter, Changpeng Zhao, the founder and CEO of Binance, said the network will be a major component of Kazakhstan’s latest Web3 endeavor.

The Binance founder tweeted that the National Bank of Kazakhstan (NBK) will integrate its central bank digital currency (CBDC), the digital tenge, on the BNB Chain, the underlying blockchain of the Binance network.

National Bank of Kazakhstan (NKB) will integrate their CBDC on @BNBchain. #BNB https://t.co/33WMKwAczm

— CZ Binance (@cz_binance) October 27, 2022

The NBK launched a CBDC pilot which included the participation of local merchants and consumers. Zhao said he looks forward to the bank further developing use cases to “bridge the gap between traditional banking and the crypto ecosystem.”

This development is one of many in the network’s effort to push crypto adoption, particularly in Kazakhstan. Back in August of this year, Binance was given its in-principle approval to operate as a digital asset service provider in Kazakhstan.

Less than a month later, on Oct. 6, the Kazakh Financial Services Authority granted Binance a permanent license to offer digital asset services and provide custody services. It was around this time that Binance also signed a memorandum of understanding with local authorities in an effort to help fight financial crime.

The Binance ecosystem, including its founder, has been vocal about its mission to push crypto adoption around the world. Recently it has engaged in crypto-related activities in Ukraine by hosting an NFT collection of a local museum at risk due to the conflict, along with opening two new offices in Brazil, one of Latin America’s major crypto hubs.

Related: SWIFT says it has reached a ‘breakthrough’ in recent CBDC experiments

Kazakhstan’s CBDC pilot program is among the country’s recent activities in the crypto space.

On Sept. 28, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said Kazakhstan is inching closer to legalizing methods to convert cryptocurrencies to cash, along with full legal recognition. This statement came after the country introduced new crypto mining tax regulations over the summer.

Recent data on global crypto mining revealed that Kazakhstan is among the world’s top three destinations for Bitcoin (BTC) mining, after the United States and China.