Kazakhstan Orders Coinbase, HTX and Four Other Crypto Exchanges to Halt Unlicensed Operations

Kazakhstan’s financial authorities have announced a court order barring six overseas cryptocurrency trading platforms, including Coinbase and HTX, from unlicensed operations.

The Astana International Financial Centre Court issued the order against Coinbase, BingX, Bitcoin.com, HTX, BitMart and WEEX, according to the Astana Financial Services Authority, or AFSA, on Oct. 21.

The measure is intended to restrict platforms that have not obtained the required authorization from providing or promoting digital-asset services within the jurisdiction of the Astana International Financial Centre, or AIFC.

Under the court order, the platforms cannot offer crypto-asset services or conduct marketing activities within the AIFC without the relevant licenses. They are also barred from distributing related mobile applications.

The court first issued the order on Sept. 15 and revised parts of it on Sept. 18. LBank, which had originally been included, was removed from the list after blocking users in Kazakhstan from accessing its services.

The action shows how Kazakh authorities are restricting business activity based on whether a virtual-asset service provider is licensed within the AIFC. However, the order applies to the provision and promotion of unlicensed services within the AIFC’s jurisdiction and should not be interpreted as a nationwide ban on all activity by those exchanges across Kazakhstan.