Kazakhstan has partnered with Binance to establish a state-backed crypto-protection sanctuary, marking the country’s latest moves as a digital asset.
According to a Monday announcement on the Kazakh government website, the first digital asset in the fund’s portfolio is BNB (BNB).
The announcement also did not specify the amount of BNB purchased to sow the fund, nor did it give details on what other crypto investments would follow.
The fund, called the Alem Crypto Fund, was established by the Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development and is managed by the Kazakhstan Venture Group under the Astana International Financial Center (AIFC).
“The main purpose of the fund is to make long-term investments in digital assets and build strategic reserves,” the announcement reads.
Binance has been a close partner and then CEO of Kazakhstan since 2022, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao has signed a memorandum of understanding with Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Digital Development to help develop the country’s cryptocurrency framework.
The news was announced less than a week after Kazakhstan deployed its own Tenge-backed Stablecoin, Kzte, to the Solana network through partnerships with MasterCard, Intebix and Eurasian Bank.
Related: The proposed US Bitcoin Strategic Reserve explained
Kazakhstan continues to evolve its crypto policy
Kazakhstan, a Central Asian country of around 20 million people, has long been an important hub for crypto mining. Ranked globally by Bitcoin Hash Rate in 2021. This is the total computing power used by miners to protect network and process transactions.
In 2024, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev asked regulators to adopt a more transparent legal framework on digital assets after 36 unlicensed exchanges were closed domestically.
In May 2025, the country announced plans for “Cryptocity,” a pilot zone that allows crypto payments. Earlier this month, Tokayev called for a strategic crypto sanctuary and a “full ecosystem of digital assets,” and called for the law to be drafted before 2026.
The announcement comes months after a June report from the Cointelegraph, the National Bank of Kazakhstan was considering a plan for the underground crypto reserves to be funded with seized assets and provincial mining revenues.
The Alem Crypto Fund is not a central bank sanctuary, but it is supported by the state and highlights the growth trends of countries considering adding Bitcoin (BTC) and crypto to their domestic finances.
In 2021, El Salvador became the first country to establish an official Bitcoin Reserve, adopting BTC as its fiat currency in the same year.
Reports say Bhutan, a small Himalayan country, had already begun accumulating bitcoin in 2019 through state-backed mining operations.
Recently, Brazil and Indonesia have been seeking ways to set national strategic digital asset reserves.
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