Tether and Kazakhstan explore Tenge stablecoin pilot in new deal

Tether has signed an agreement with Kazakhstan’s central bank and the Alatau City Authority to explore a stablecoin linked to the country’s currency, the tenge.

No stablecoin has been released yet. How such a token could work will be looked at, and a proposal for a possible pilot will then be prepared.

What Tether’s Kazakhstan agreement covers

Signatories to the memorandum are Tether, the National Bank of Kazakhstan, and the Alatau City authority.

The three parties will study stablecoin models used in other countries. They will also consider where a tenge-backed token could be useful and how its reserves might be managed.

In simple terms, the proposed stablecoin would aim to provide a blockchain-based version of the tenge that maintains the same value as the national currency.

However, the announcement does not indicate any known issuer, supporting blockchain, or launch date of the new token; it likewise provides no details about where the token could be used by or what assets would back it.

Paolo Ardoino, Tether CEO said that Tether wanted to build  “efficient, transparent and sustainable digital finance infrastructure.”

Workshops on stablecoins, reserve management, and putting conventional assets on blockchain will be conducted for the employees of central bank employees and governments. 

Plans extend beyond a tenge stablecoin

Tokenization is another major part of the deal.

Partners plan to create a framework to convert real-world assets into blockchain-based tokens and then explore setting up a pilot in Alatau city

The work would then be back by Tether’s hadron platform. Hadron was described as a tool through which organizations can create digitalized versions of assets in Tether. 

It would not be the first tenge stablecoin the state has experimented with.

A similar pilot project connecting crypto services to the conventional payment system of Kazakhstan was announced in September 2025, involving local crypto exchange Intebix, Solana, Mastercard, and Eurasian Bank.

By getting Tether involved, they offer yet another potential model than their first attempt. Whether or not it moves beyond research remains to be seen and will be dependent on pilot proposals and regulatory conditions.

Final Summary

Tether and Kazakhstan will study a tenge-backed stablecoin, but no launch has been confirmed.

It covers a possible asset-tokenization pilot in Alatau City as well.