Kyrgyzstan has launched a national stablecoin and central bank digital currency in partnership with crypto exchange Binance, President Sadyr Japarov said on Saturday.
A mountainous former Soviet republic of around 7 million people traditionally dependent on migrant workers in Russia, Kyrgyzstan has positioned itself as a cryptocurrency leader in Central Asia in recent years.
A5A7, a stablecoin backed by the Russian ruble and headquartered in Kyrgyzstan, has been placed under sanctions by Western governments who claim it is being used to facilitate Russia’s evasion of sanctions over the war in Ukraine.
Changpeng Zhao, the founder of crypto exchange Binance, was appointed as an adviser to the president of Kyrgyzstan on digital assets in May.
Zhao said in a post on X on Saturday that Kyrgyzstan’s national stablecoin has been launched on the BNB chain and that a digital version of Kyrgyzstan’s currency, the soma, is ready to be used in government payments.
He said a national cryptocurrency reserve has been established, which includes Binance’s BNB token.
US President Donald Trump on Friday pardoned Zhao, who was previously convicted of money laundering-related crimes, SEEbiz reports.
Kyrgyzstan has traditionally been the most democratic of the five ex-Soviet Central Asian republics, but Japarov has clamped down on dissent since coming to power in a wave of street protests in 2020.
The country is due to hold early parliamentary elections on November 30, and Japarov’s allies want to extend their dominance in the legislature.
