Kazakhstan's Financial Monitoring Agency has shut down 36 illegal cryptocurrency exchanges in 2024, marking a dramatic 96.3% decrease in such operations from the previous year. This action is part of a broader effort to combat money laundering and improve regulatory measures in the crypto sector. The agency reported that these unlicensed exchanges facilitated money laundering and other illicit activities by allowing unmonitored fiat-to-crypto and crypto-to-fiat transactions. The exchanges had a turnover of approximately 60 billion Kazakhstani tenge (about $112 million), with authorities confiscating assets worth around 2.5 billion tenge ($4.8 million). In 2023, nine investigations into illegal exchanges and money laundering were also launched. The crackdown is ongoing, with global exchanges like Binance and Bybit still operating legally in Kazakhstan. Additionally, the country is working on launching a central bank digital currency, the digital tenge, to enhance transaction monitoring and combat the misuse of cryptocurrencies.

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