Kazakhstan court bars Coinbase and five other platforms from Astana hub
Regulation & Gov ·
A court in the Astana International Financial Centre has issued injunctions against Coinbase and five other crypto platforms for offering services without a license in the jurisdiction.
The ruling, handed down by the AIFC Court, restricts the named platforms from operating in the financial hub, which maintains its own regulatory regime separate from mainland Kazakhstan's financial oversight. Details of the order are laid out by the AIFC Court, which identifies the injunctions as targeting operators that provided crypto services to users in the centre without securing the required authorization. Coinbase, a publicly listed exchange that functions as one of the more closely watched bellwethers for how regulators treat crypto platforms, is named among the six affected.
The action centers on licensing rather than any allegation of fraud or technical failure, according to the reporting. CoinDesk reports that the court barred Coinbase along with five other platforms from unlicensed crypto services within the Astana International Financial Centre, underscoring that the AIFC operates its own licensing framework that platforms must satisfy to serve users inside the zone, distinct from requirements elsewhere in Kazakhstan.
A related development places HTX in the same enforcement sweep, with access restrictions following the same court ruling against unlicensed crypto platforms, indicating the action was not limited to a single operator but applied across multiple exchanges found to be offering services without AIFC authorization.
The order does not specify what remedial steps, if any, would allow the affected platforms to resume operations in the hub, nor does it address whether users with existing accounts tied to the Astana centre face immediate service interruptions. It also remains unclear how Coinbase intends to respond, whether through an appeal, a licensing application, or a withdrawal from the jurisdiction. The episode adds to a pattern of regulators drawing sharper lines around licensing requirements for crypto exchanges operating across borders, and further details on enforcement timelines or compliance pathways have not yet been disclosed.