The Astana Financial Services Authority disclosed on October 20 that it has obtained injunctions against the operators of BingX, Bitcoin.com, Huobi Global (HTX), BitMart, Coinbase and WEEX. The orders, rooted in a September 15 judgment varied on September 18, bar those platforms from providing, offering or marketing digital asset services within the Astana International Financial Centre or to users located there without authorization. None of the named operators showed up to defend the case.
The scope is narrower than AFSA wanted, and the court said so.
What the order actually covers
The injunction stops at the AIFC's boundary. It does not reach Kazakhstan as a whole, and AFSA's announcement is careful about that distinction. The court restrained the operators from marketing digital asset services on AIFC territory or to users there, and from making mobile applications available through any platform for unauthorized services in that territory.
There's a second layer. The varied order directs that notice be served on Google and Apple. Once served, the two app-store operators become bound by the judgment as if they were parties to it, and knowingly permitting a platform to breach the injunction could expose them to contempt findings. They retain a separate right to ask the court to set aside or vary the order.
AFSA's announcement doesn't say whether service on either company has been completed. The disclosed documents also don't show a completed app-removal operation.
Why the court trimmed the relief
AFSA had asked for a standalone app-store injunction. The court declined, questioning the legal basis and noting that Apple and Google hadn't had a chance to make representations. Instead, the judgment calls for dialogue between the regulator and the app-store operators about preventing unlawful activity.
The court also pointed to Kazakhstan's amended Law on Digital Assets. The changes took effect on May 1, 2026, deleting Article 11 and introducing Article 12-1, which hands a wider regulatory role to the National Bank. The court cited that shift as its reason for narrower relief. AFSA was given permission to seek a variation if it could present a properly reasoned basis for broader terms — but that permission doesn't extend the order's territorial reach.
LBank exits, the rest stay in
One operator got out. LBank's operator was removed from the order on September 18 after it independently blocked access to its services in Kazakhstan, which AFSA describes as Kazakhstan-wide. The other six stayed in, and the court entered a default judgment after they failed to file an acknowledgment of service or a defence within the required time. They weren't represented at trial.
The varied order makes the remaining operators jointly and severally liable for AFSA's litigation costs of KZT 1,995,479.95. That's a costs award, separate from the operating restrictions — it doesn't compensate anyone's customers.
What customers don't get
The order provides no mechanism for returning assets and no allocation of compensation to users of the affected platforms. It's a regulatory and injunctive matter, not a restitution one. Whatever happens to balances held on those platforms is a separate question the judgment doesn't answer.
AFSA says the litigation followed written warnings sent to more than 20 crypto platforms in 2025.
The next concrete step is service on Google and Apple. Until that's confirmed, the app-store provision is a judgment on paper rather than an enforced one — and once the two companies are bound, they can either comply or go back to the court to challenge the terms.
