Kyrgyzstan has launched a national stablecoin and central bank digital currency in collaboration with cryptocurrency exchange Binance, announced President Sadyr Japarov on Saturday.
A mountainous former Soviet republic with a population of around 7 million, Kyrgyzstan has increasingly positioned itself as a cryptocurrency leader in Central Asia, despite its traditional reliance on labor migrants in Russia.
The A5A7 stablecoin, backed by the Russian rouble and based in Kyrgyzstan, has been sanctioned by Western governments, which claim it facilitates the circumvention of sanctions on Russia over the war in Ukraine.
Changpeng Zhao, founder of Binance, was appointed as an adviser on digital assets to Kyrgyzstan's president in May. On Saturday, Zhao revealed on X that the Kyrgyz national stablecoin had been launched on the BNB Chain, and that the digital version of the Kyrgyz som was ready for use in government transactions. He also mentioned that a national cryptocurrency reserve, including Binance's BNB token, had been established.
On Friday, U.S. President Donald Trump pardoned Zhao, who had previously been convicted of money laundering-related offenses.
While Kyrgyzstan was once the most democratic among the five former Soviet Central Asian republics, Japarov has since tightened control over dissent following his rise to power after the 2020 street protests. The country is set to hold a snap parliamentary election on November 30, with Japarov's allies aiming to strengthen their hold on the legislature.
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