Kazakhstan's AIFC Court Orders App-Store Blocks on Coinbase, BingX, Four Others

Kazakhstan's Astana International Financial Centre court has issued injunctions against six cryptocurrency platforms — Coinbase, BingX, Huobi Global (HTX), BitMart, Bitcoin.com and WEEX — prohibiting them from offering digital-asset services in the AIFC jurisdiction without licenses, and extending the restrictions to Google's and Apple's app stores.

The Astana Financial Services Authority (AFSA) announced the decision on Tuesday. The regulator filed suit against the operators for advertising and providing digital-asset-related services in Kazakhstan without the required authorization.

The court's Sept. 15 order initially named seven platforms. An amendment three days later removed LBank, after its operator blocked access for Kazakh users. Google and Apple are covered as app-store operators, with geographic restrictions requiring them to cut off access to the remaining six platforms in Kazakhstan.

What does the ruling change for operators?

The injunctions convert what was previously a supervisory warning into an enforceable court order with a concrete distribution chokepoint: app stores. For the six named platforms, the practical consequence is loss of reach through the two dominant mobile distribution channels in the country, layered on top of any direct access restrictions.

AFSA CEO Evgeniya Bogdanova framed the decision as the product of sustained enforcement work. "This court decision is the result of extensive and consistent efforts by AFSA's Supervision and Enforcement teams to address the activities of unlicensed crypto platforms that were advertising without authorization and offering digital asset-related services in Kazakhstan without the required permission," Bogdanova said.

The regulator's stated rationale is investor protection. AFSA said users of unlicensed platforms lack the safeguards required of licensed firms, including:

• asset protection
• disclosure
• complaints handling
• dispute resolution

The supervisory perimeter is split. Kazakhstan's National Bank oversees digital-asset service providers operating outside the AIFC, while AFSA governs firms licensed within the financial centre. Platforms serving Kazakh users must therefore engage with one of two regulators depending on their chosen structure — or face enforcement from both.

A warning-first approach with teeth

The court order did not come out of nowhere. AFSA said it warned more than 20 platforms about AIFC rules during 2025. The outcomes split into three groups:

• Nine platforms voluntarily restricted app access in Kazakhstan, and AFSA withdrew its claims against them.
• Seven of those platforms indicated they intend to seek licenses.
• Six platforms did not comply, and the injunctions will be enforced against them.

That structure rewards early cooperation: platforms that moved to restrict access avoided litigation entirely, while the holdouts now face court-ordered distribution blocks. For compliance teams at exchanges weighing small-market exposure, the Kazakh playbook shows a regulator able to escalate from warning letter to injunction within a single year.

Requests for comment from Coinbase, BingX and Huobi Global were not immediately answered.

A second wave in a longer campaign

The AIFC action is not Kazakhstan's first move against unregistered exchanges. The country's Financial Monitoring Agency blocked access in 2023 to almost 1,000 crypto exchanges serving Kazakh citizens without proper registration — an enforcement sweep roughly two orders of magnitude wider in scope than the current six-platform injunction.

The difference this time is the mechanism. The 2023 blocking campaign targeted websites; the AIFC order reaches through Google and Apple to the app layer, where most retail users actually interact with exchanges. For platforms, that shifts the blocking burden onto distribution partners and makes circumvention materially harder than a simple domain change.

What comes next

For the six platforms still under injunction, the paths are narrow: comply and restrict access as LBank did, or pursue an AFSA license along the route the seven prospective applicants have signaled. The seven stated license intentions will define the next enforcement window — whether AFSA converts declared intent into approved licenses or returns to court will shape how seriously offshore platforms treat the AIFC's jurisdiction going forward.