A 28-year-old resident of the Kostanay region has been sentenced to two years in prison for illegally trading cryptocurrency on the Binance platform over four years. The court also ordered confiscation of his property, reports the website infohub.kz.
From 2020 to 2024, the man bought and sold cryptocurrency without a license through Binance's P2P section. He used bank accounts opened in his name, relatives' names, and those of other people to conduct transactions. The proceeds were hidden in bank deposits.
“The illegal income amounted to more than 1.9 billion tenge. He placed the money in bank deposits to conceal its criminal origin,” court documents state.
Following a lawsuit by the prosecutor's office, the court seized the full 1.9 billion tenge for the state. Additionally, 13.4 million tenge in cash, two cars, and cryptocurrency worth $7,900 were confiscated. The man is also banned from mining or any operations with digital assets for seven years.
Earlier it was reported that Kazakhstan plans to replenish its state crypto reserve through mining for the first time. Major companies will be offered fixed electricity tariffs for ten years in exchange for donating 10% of the mined cryptocurrency to the state. The Ekibastuz GRES-1 power plant will be the first electricity provider for strategic mining.