Kazakhstan to Test National Digital Currency on BNB Chain, Binance CEO Zhao Says

The National Bank of Kazakhstan will integrate its central bank digital currency on Binance’s blockchain network BNB Chain, the company’s CEO Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao said on Thursday.

The central bank began testing a digital iteration of its national currency, the Kazakhstani tenge, last year, and said it would make a decision on launching a CBDC by the end of 2022.

Binance introduced the bank to BNB Chain, Zhao tweeted on Wednesday, and followed it up with the message that the bank had decided to test use cases for its CBDC using the blockchain network.

While the country has been cracking down on energy-intensive crypto mining, it has also laid out plans to attract crypto exchanges to its Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC).

In early October, Binance announced it had obtained a license to operate in Kazakhstan through the Astana Financial Services Authority.

CoinDesk has reached out to the National Bank of Kazakhstan for comment.

Read more: Kazakhstan Piloting a CBDC on R3′s Corda Platform