Kazakhstan plans to issue tokenized government bonds with its Finance Ministry in the first quarter of 2027, following its first placement of tokenized central bank notes. The National Bank confirmed the timetable in its November 13 statement on the Congress of Financiers in Almaty.
The completed transaction was a November 9 auction that included 10 billion tenge in tokenized notes, approximately $22 million according to the news report. Government bonds are the next planned instrument, extending the work from an executed central bank transaction into Finance Ministry debt.
For the country's securities market, the auction demonstrated a working issuance process that accommodates digital and traditional instruments within the same auction.
Digital notes took one fifth of the auction
The National Bank placed 50 billion tenge in notes by face value. Tokenized notes accounted for 10 billion tenge, or 20%, with traditional notes making up the remaining 40 billion tenge.
KASE's auction results recorded approximately 70.19 billion tenge in active demand at face value, equivalent to 140.4% of the amount available. Three participants received allocations across four executed orders. These figures cover the combined auction, so the oversubscription reflects demand for the entire issue.
Cash proceeds were lower than face value because the securities were sold at a discount. Executed tokenized orders totaled approximately 9.62 billion tenge, compared with their 10 billion tenge nominal amount. Across both formats, proceeds reached approximately 48.11 billion tenge.
The transaction therefore has two useful measures: the amount investors paid and the nominal amount of notes placed. The rounded $22 million description refers to the scale of the tokenized placement, rather than a separate dollar borrowing.
An institutional test with a defined repayment schedule
The notes have a 91-day term. Circulation began on November 11, with repayment scheduled to start on February 10, 2027. The auction's weighted average annualized yield was 15.72%.
That annualized figure is a pricing measure, not a 15.72% return over the notes' three-month life.
The published auction terms assigned both formats the same ISIN, KZW100014585, while giving them separate trading codes. Traditional notes traded as NTK091_2892 and tokenized notes as 1DNT912892.
The terms also specified a minimum digital order of 50,000 notes. At 100 tenge face value per note, that represents 5 million tenge in nominal exposure. The traditional lot was one note.
Those entry sizes give the pilot an institutional character. Tokenization changed the issuance format, while the initial auction retained a substantial minimum order for its digital instrument. Broader investment access will require product design beyond changing the record into a token.
KASE connects digital ownership to existing records
The National Bank's placement announcement identifies the central bank as both issuer and the party responsible for fulfilling the notes' obligations. KASE supplies the technology for issuance, placement and subsequent circulation on its digital financial assets platform.
Ownership records sit on that platform and are reflected in the Central Securities Depository's register system. KASE Clearing Centre handles clearing and settlement for transactions concluded at the auction.
The structure keeps established market institutions involved in the digital instrument. Investors acquire a central bank obligation through a process that connects the exchange's digital records with the securities depository.
As an operational test, placing one issue in two formats also has an advantage: the issuer can examine a new issuance mechanism while retaining common pricing conditions. The National Bank explicitly described the auction as a test of interaction between new technology and existing financial infrastructure.
Kazakhstan has thus completed a tokenized note placement through its domestic exchange and securities recordkeeping system, putting that interaction into practice.
Finance Ministry bonds are the next commitment
Governor Timur Suleimenov outlined the government bond plan at the November 13 financiers' congress. Qazinform's account also described longer-term ambitions to tokenize property, precious metals and mineral resources, with easier investment access and lower capital-raising costs among the stated objectives.
Those objectives set a broader direction. The immediate task is to extend the issuance mechanism from National Bank notes to government bonds issued with the Finance Ministry.
The completed short-term note auction gives the authorities an operating transaction to build on. The proposed bond issue still has to move from a timetable into an actual offering, with Q1 2027 as the stated target. That offering would be a further step toward the broader ambitions outlined at the congress.
Overview
Kazakhstan's first tokenized central bank note placement accounted for 10 billion tenge of a 50 billion tenge hybrid auction. The transaction used KASE's digital platform alongside established depository and clearing institutions. The National Bank and Finance Ministry now plan tokenized government bonds for the first quarter of 2027.
