The Central Asian country is planning to diversify its national reserves with digital assets, but is waiting for more favorable market conditions.
According to RBC, the National Bank of Kazakhstan (NBK) is evaluating a plan to allocate up to $300 million to digital assets. On 28 November, the bank’s president, Timur Suleimenov, stated that the funds would come from the institution’s gold and foreign currency reserves, not from the country’s National Fund.
The initiative marks a further step toward diversifying Kazakhstan’s national reserves by adding digital financial instruments to the central bank’s portfolio.
Suleimenov clarified that the total amount will not necessarily be deployed in full. The central bank has already created a separate portfolio dedicated to investments in high-potential tech stocks and other financial instruments linked to digital assets.
“In the first stage, we’ll be managing gold and foreign exchange reserves. Within this portfolio, a separate portfolio has already been created, focusing on investments in high-tech stocks and other financial instruments related to digital financial assets. The amounts are up to $300 million. This doesn’t mean we’ve just invested $300 million; we might limit ourselves to $50 million, $100 million, or $250 million,” he reportedly said.
The recent drop in digital asset prices has made the timing of the allocation uncertain for the institution. For this reason, the central bank intends to wait for greater market stabilization before committing capital to the sector. “We won’t make any decisions without thorough analysis. We’re analyzing. We won’t rush these decisions until good investment opportunities emerge. After the current decline in all digital, financial, and crypto assets, we need to let the dust settle before making investment decisions,” he explained.
The digital asset investment plan is part of a broader strategy to expand the central bank’s foreign-exchange portfolio. The NBK aims to diversify its holdings—which are currently concentrated mainly in gold and securities—by adding tech equities and financial instruments tied to digital assets.
These considerations come nearly three months after President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev ordered the creation of a strategic state reserve for digital assets.
Kazakhstan’s evaluation aligns with a broader shift among some sovereign institutions toward testing or accumulating digital assets. In early November, the Czech National Bank acquired $1 million worth of digital assets for a test portfolio, including bitcoin and an unspecified stablecoin.
