Astana court bars six crypto platforms inside AIFC

Kazakhstan’s Astana Financial Services Authority disclosed on October 20 that the AIFC Court has barred the operators of Coinbase, BingX, Bitcoin.com, Huobi Global, BitMart and WEEX from offering unlicensed digital-asset services inside the Astana International Financial Centre.

The scope is narrower than a national exchange ban. The September 15 default judgment restrains the six operators from providing, offering or marketing digital-asset services on AIFC territory, or to users located there, without authorization. It also covers making mobile applications available for that unauthorized activity. The court expressly declined to extend AFSA’s requested relief across the rest of Kazakhstan, where a 2026 legal amendment gave the National Bank the broader licensing role.

A September order became public policy news in October

The court originally named seven platforms, including LBank. A September 18 variation removed LBank after its operator told AFSA it had taken measures addressing the regulator’s concerns. That left six operators subject to the injunction.

The orders are dated more than a month before AFSA’s October 20 announcement. Coinburn is reporting the regulator’s public disclosure now, not presenting the September ruling as a same-day judicial event. Independent reporting published October 20 also reviewed the judgment and described the restriction as limited to the AIFC.

The ruling was entered by default, meaning the operators did not file an acknowledgment of service or a defense within the required time. It was not a merits judgment reached after a contested trial. The court said AFSA had properly served the claim and established the jurisdictional basis for relief. The defendants were not represented in the judgment.

That procedural posture matters. The orders are enforceable court restraints, but they do not record an adversarial finding on every allegation or disclose responses from the six platform operators. The reviewed sources also contain no statement from those companies about whether they will comply, seek variation or challenge the judgment.

App stores are part of the enforcement route

The judgment directs that notice be served on Google and Apple because their stores distribute the platforms’ mobile applications. Once served, the companies are bound by the judgment as if they were parties, subject to a right to seek to set it aside or vary it.

The court did not issue a separate injunction commanding Google or Apple to remove the apps. Instead, it said AFSA should first discuss the specific measures needed to prevent prohibited distribution. AFSA said on October 20 that the court orders would be sent to the two app-store operators to restrict access.

That distinction prevents the ruling from being overstated as proof that every named app has already disappeared. Neither the judgment nor AFSA’s announcement supplies an implementation timestamp, confirms completed geoblocking by Google or Apple, or establishes that web access has stopped.

The enforcement campaign has a longer timeline

AFSA said it began the effort in 2025 by issuing written warnings to more than 20 crypto platforms, then initiated court proceedings in early 2026 against services that continued without an AIFC license. According to the regulator, nine platforms voluntarily restricted their applications in Kazakhstan and seven others expressed an intention to seek an AFSA license. Those are regulator-reported outcomes, not independently audited measures of market access or compliance.

The immediate consequence is jurisdictional rather than market-wide: six named operators face a court-backed restriction on unlicensed services within the AIFC, with app-store cooperation identified as the practical enforcement mechanism. The records do not quantify affected users, assets, trading volume or revenue, and they do not establish a nationwide shutdown. Follow-up should focus on service of the orders, any applications to vary them, and evidence that location-based restrictions have actually taken effect.