Kazakhstan's Astana Financial Services Authority (AFSA) has announced that the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC) Court has placed Nasdaq-listed Coinbase on the same geo-blocking list as HTX, an exchange sanctioned in the UK and the EU, and has asked Apple and Google to restrict the listed crypto apps from the country's app stores.

The order also names BingX, Bitcoin.com, BitMart, LBank and WEEX. It is Kazakhstan's latest move against Coinbase, adding to a 2023 block on the exchange's website. The listed companies are barred from offering or advertising digital-asset services in the AIFC, Kazakhstan's special financial and economic hub, until they receive the required license.

Which crypto platforms are banned in Kazakhstan?

An AFSA disclosure dated October 20, 2026 confirmed that the AIFC Court granted the regulator's claims to stop the operators of the BingX, Bitcoin.com, Huobi Global (HTX), BitMart, Coinbase, LBank and WEEX digital asset platforms from offering or advertising their services in the country until they comply with the AIFC's licensing regime.

The September 15, 2026 ruling followed the "extensive and consistent efforts" of AFSA's supervision and enforcement teams, according to CEO Evgeniya Bogdanova.

Of the more than 20 platforms that received written warnings from AFSA in 2025, nine had the claims against them dropped after voluntarily restricting their apps in Kazakhstan. LBank's operator had its own claim dropped on September 18 after it blocked access in the country. The remaining six, including Coinbase and HTX, now face enforcement through the court. The LBank precedent shows the list is not fixed, leaving the remaining six the option of exiting the way LBank did, or of ending the bar by obtaining the required AIFC license.

The AIFC is not accusing Coinbase of anything resembling the conduct cited against HTX. Even so, the two names appearing on the same list is striking, given the vast gap in the regulatory compliance standings of the two companies. Coinbase is cleared to operate in the US, the UK and Canada, where it launched regulated crypto derivatives for local traders, as Cryptopolitan reported. HTX, by contrast, was sanctioned in the UK and the EU over suspected Russian funds flowing through the exchange. The pairing also illustrates how a licensing-first regime works: within the AIFC's framework, market access turns on local authorization rather than on a platform's regulatory standing elsewhere.

Why did Kazakhstan try to ban Coinbase?

In November 2023, Kazakhstan's Ministry of Culture and Information cut off access to coinbase.com, saying the exchange had breached paragraph 5 of Article 11 of the country's Law on Digital Assets, per Kursiv, a news outlet based in the country. The provision bars unlicensed crypto trading anywhere in Kazakhstan outside the Astana International Financial Centre.

That website block was not effective, as users could still open the sites of Coinbase, Kraken and other large exchanges using VPN apps. Coinbase said at the time that it did not have a physical presence in Kazakhstan.

AFSA's current move targets apps directly, asking Apple and Google to restrict access on a geographic basis. Japan's Financial Services Agency (FSA) used the same tactic in 2025, when it asked both companies to pull Bybit, MEXC, LBank, KuCoin and Bitget from local stores. Earlier this month, Cryptopolitan reported that South Korea's Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) announced it will block access to the websites of 27 unregistered offshore crypto exchange platforms, including KuCoin, MEXC, Phemex, BingX, BitMart, XT.com, Bitrue, CoinW and BTCC. The app-store route also draws Apple and Google into the enforcement chain itself, a lever the 2023 website block never touched.

Kazakhstan is developing its domestic crypto market

Kazakhstan has spent 2026 trying to pull crypto activity onshore. Its regulated market has grown more than 30-fold in three years, topping $10 billion, with a handful of exchanges now licensed through the AIFC and more applying. The country has also handed private crypto holders a tax exemption to coax funds off foreign venues.

The court said operating without authorization damages the AIFC framework and creates unfair competition for licensed players that carry anti-money-laundering (AML) and customer due diligence costs.

Since May 2026, AFSA has been working with the National Bank of Kazakhstan, which oversees digital-asset providers outside the AIFC. How the pending license applications progress, and whether any of the six operators still on the court list follow LBank's route, will indicate how far the onshoring effort extends beyond the AIFC's current licensed roster.