BAKU, Azerbaijan, November 11. The National Bank of Kazakhstan has issued short-term notes in tokenized form for the first time, placing 10 billion tenge (about $22.3 million) worth of such securities as part of a total issuance worth 50 billion tenge ($111.7 million) on the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE).
According to the National Bank, the auction was held on November 9, 2026, with notes from the same issue offered simultaneously in traditional and tokenized forms.
The securities have a maturity of 91 days, with settlement and circulation scheduled to begin on November 11. The weighted average yield following the placement stood at 15.72% per annum.
Total demand at the auction reached 70.2 billion tenge ($156.92 million) at face value, exceeding the amount offered by 1.4 times.
Offering the same issue in both traditional and tokenized forms ensured uniform pricing conditions and allowed the National Bank to test a new issuance mechanism integrating digital technologies with the existing financial market infrastructure.
Tokenized notes are financial instruments issued in electronic digital form. The National Bank acts as both the issuer and the entity responsible for fulfilling obligations under the securities, while KASE provides the technological infrastructure for their issuance, placement, and subsequent circulation on its digital financial assets platform.
Ownership rights to tokenized notes are recorded on the KASE platform, with corresponding entries reflected in the Central Securities Depository's records. The KASE Clearing Center handles clearing and settlements for transactions concluded at the auction.
Kazakhstan introduced a legislative framework governing the issuance and circulation of digital financial assets, including financial instruments in electronic form, on May 1, 2026. KASE was the first to complete accounting registration with the National Bank as an operator of a digital financial assets platform and a digital asset trading platform.
The first placement of tokenized notes is expected to provide a basis for further adoption of tokenization in Kazakhstan's government securities market, expand the range of digital financial instruments, and create new mechanisms for raising capital.
The tenge-to-dollar conversions were calculated using the National Bank of Kazakhstan's exchange rate of $1 = 447.52 tenge as of November 11, 2026.
