Kraken parent Payward announced on October 21 that it had received in-principle approval from the Astana Financial Services Authority for a proposed Kazakhstan operation. The approval covers Payward Kazakhstan within the Astana International Financial Centre and includes plans for a digital-asset trading facility, dealing in investments and custody services.
In-principle approval is not full authorization. The company still needs final licensing, a public service-launch announcement and details of eligible clients and products. Kraken said the planned service would connect Kazakh customers with global order books across its existing network, although local onboarding, market conduct controls and custody protections still need to be completed.
On October 28, Kraken amplified a post by @arjunsethi announcing a partnership with Hyperliquid, the firm behind HyperliquidX. The post attracted 354 likes and 52 retweets. The collaboration aims to bridge the offerings of Payward and Hyperliquid, potentially boosting liquidity, trading activity and user engagement.
Kazakhstan has become an active jurisdiction for crypto infrastructure, partly because of its bitcoin mining history and the Astana International Financial Centre’s efforts to develop regulated financial services. However, trading, custody and mining are separate activities, and market participants should not treat an approval milestone as an immediate change in asset value.
