The Alem Crypto Fund, a state-backed vehicle for long-term digital asset reserves, was launched by Kazakhstan. It debuted with a BNB purchase in partnership with Binance Kazakhstan.
A state-backed crypto reserve has been established by Kazakhstan in partnership with Binance, marking the country’s latest move into digital assets.
According to a Monday announcement on the Kazakhstan government’s website, the initial digital asset in the fund’s portfolio is BNB. This is the utility token that drives transactions, fees, and governance on Binance’s blockchain.
The announcement did not specify how much BNB was purchased to seed the fund, nor were any details given about what other crypto investments might follow.
The fund, which is called Alem Crypto Fund, was created by the Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development and is managed by Qazaqstan Venture Group under the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC).
The primary objective of the fund is to make long-term investments in digital assets and to build strategic reserves, according to the announcement.
Binance has been a close partner of the Kazakhstan government since 2022, when its then CEO, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, signed a memorandum of understanding with Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Digital Development to help develop the country’s crypto regulatory framework.
The news was announced less than a week after Kazakhstan rolled out its own tenge-backed stablecoin, KZTE, on the Solana network through a partnership with Mastercard, Intebix, and Eurasian Bank.
Kazakhstan Advances Its Crypto Policy Framework
Kazakhstan, a Central Asian nation of about 20 million people, has long been a significant hub for crypto mining. In 2021, it was ranked second globally by Bitcoin hashrate—the total computing power used by miners to secure the network and process transactions.
In 2024, after 36 unlicensed exchanges were shut down in the country, regulators were called upon by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to adopt a more transparent legal framework around digital assets.
In May 2025, plans for “CryptoCity,” a pilot zone allowing crypto payments, were unveiled by the country. Earlier this month, a strategic crypto reserve and a “full-fledged ecosystem of digital assets,” with legislation to be drafted before 2026, were called for by Tokayev.
The announcement came a few months after a June report from that the National Bank of Kazakhstan was considering plans for a state-run crypto reserve. This reserve was to be funded with seized assets and state mining revenues.
Though the Alem Crypto Fund is not a central bank reserve, it is state-backed. This highlights a growing trend of countries that are considering adding Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to their national treasuries.
In 2021, El Salvador became the first country to establish an official Bitcoin reserve, and in the same year, BTC was adopted as legal tender.
According to reports, Bitcoin had already begun to be accumulated by Bhutan, a small Himalayan country, through state-backed mining operations as early as 2019.
More recently, Brazil and Indonesia have been exploring ways to set up national strategic digital asset reserves.
