Kraken Parent Payward Gets In-Principle Approval for Kazakhstan Expansion

Payward, the company behind the Kraken cryptocurrency exchange, has received in-principle approval for an expansion into Kazakhstan. The preliminary clearance covers both trading and custody, meaning the firm would be able to offer digital asset buying and selling to clients there, as well as safekeeping of their holdings, once the process is finalized.

An in-principle approval signals that the relevant authority is willing to move an application forward, but it does not by itself allow a company to start operating. Firms in this position generally still need to meet remaining conditions before they can launch services.

What the approval covers

The two activities named in the decision are distinct. Trading refers to allowing customers to exchange digital assets through the platform. Custody refers to holding those assets on behalf of clients, which places responsibility on the provider to safeguard them. Approval for both functions together reflects a broader scope than a single service would.

The decision is part of Payward's wider effort to grow its presence in new markets. Kazakhstan is the subject of this step, and the approval applies to that jurisdiction only.

Remaining steps

Full licensing is a separate stage that has not been completed. Until that stage is concluded, the in-principle approval does not amount to final authorization, and the timing of the next decision was not made public in the material reviewed for this report.

The development does not involve any cryptocurrency market data for this report, so no price movements are described here.