Kraken parent Payward wins in-principle approval in Kazakhstan, but no licence yet

What Payward announced

Payward, the company behind Kraken, said on 22 October 2026 that the Astana Financial Services Authority (AFSA) has granted in-principle approval to license a local unit, Payward Kazakhstan. The AFSA regulates firms in the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC), and the approval covers three activities there: running a digital asset trading facility, dealing in investments both as principal and as agent, and providing custody of digital assets. Kraken's official X account pointed to the news a day later by sharing Payward's post for episode 7 of its Payward Pulse video series, which lists the Kazakhstan approval among the group's recent milestones.

Payward says Kazakh traders will also gain access to its global order books, which it describes as serving major markets in Europe, the US and Asia. Put simply, orders placed through the Kazakh business would be expected to meet the same pool of buyers and sellers Kraken clients use elsewhere, rather than a separate local market. The release does not list products, trading fees, funding methods or a date when accounts will open.

“The AFSA and AIFC teams have been constructive and rigorous throughout this process, and we appreciate the engagement,” said Dave Ripley, Co-CEO of Payward and Kraken. “We’re looking forward to serving clients in Kazakhstan, and to broadening what we offer them over time.”

In-principle approval is not a licence

The wording matters. In AFSA's published guide to authorisation, in-principle approval is the fourth of six stages. AFSA issues it when an application succeeds, and it sets out conditions and recommendations the firm must meet to obtain final approval in the form of a licence. In the following stage the applicant typically registers its legal entity, appoints a board, injects its initial capital and sends AFSA evidence that the conditions have been met. Only after that does AFSA issue the licence.

Applied to this announcement, Payward Kazakhstan has cleared the assessment stage but still has conditions to complete. Payward has not published what those conditions are, how long it expects them to take, or which services would be offered first. Nothing in the release says that trading or custody for clients in Kazakhstan is live today.

How the Dubai approval differs

Payward's recent Dubai approval shows what the later stage looks like, under a different regulator. On 12 October 2026 Payward said it had received Full Market Approval from Dubai's Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA), which it described as the final stage of VARA's licensing process. That followed a preliminary approval in May 2026 that let the company finish its operational set-up before onboarding clients, and Kraken said it was targeting a go-live for UAE clients in the coming weeks.

Kazakhstan is at the earlier, conditional point of AFSA's process. The months between Payward's preliminary and final approvals in Dubai are not a forecast for Kazakhstan, where the regulator, the activities and the conditions are different.

What to watch next

The next concrete signal would be AFSA granting the licence itself, followed by Payward or Kraken setting out which products, deposit and withdrawal options and eligibility rules apply in Kazakhstan. Until then, people in Kazakhstan should treat this as a regulatory milestone rather than a change to what they can open or trade on Kraken today.