Kazakhstan court bars Coinbase, BingX, HTX: 6 key points

A court in Kazakhstan's Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC) has ordered six crypto platforms, among them Coinbase and BingX, to stop offering services there without a licence, and told Apple and Google to geo-block their apps. The Astana Financial Services Authority (AFSA), which brought the case, announced the injunctions on Tuesday, Oct. 20, as Cointelegraph reported. Here is what the ruling covers.

Six platforms are named

The order bars the operators of BingX, Bitcoin.com, Huobi Global (HTX), BitMart, Coinbase and WEEX from providing, offering or advertising digital-asset services in the AIFC, or to users located there, without authorisation. It also bans them from distributing mobile apps for that purpose on any platform. Cointelegraph said it had asked BingX, Coinbase and HTX for comment.

The order dates from September

The AIFC Court issued a default judgment on Sept. 15, 2026, in a case AFSA filed against the platforms' operators as "persons unknown", according to the court's judgment. The operators are also jointly liable for AFSA's legal costs of about 2 million tenge. AFSA only made the injunctions public this week.

LBank got off the list by leaving

LBank was originally named as well. After its operator blocked access from Kazakhstan on its own, the court amended the order on Sept. 18 and removed it.

Apple and Google must restrict the apps

The ruling extends to the two big app-store operators. Once served, Google and Apple are bound to geographically restrict access to the six platforms' apps, which is the part most users are likely to notice.

Most warned platforms complied without a fight

AFSA said it warned more than 20 platforms about AIFC rules in 2025. Nine restricted access in Kazakhstan voluntarily, and seven said they intended to apply for licences, so the regulator dropped its claims against those nine. The injunctions are being enforced against the remaining six. In 2023, Kazakhstan's Financial Monitoring Agency had already blocked access to almost 1,000 unregistered exchange websites.

Why the regulator went to court

The court said unlicensed services undermine the AIFC framework and create unfair competition for licensed firms, which pay for anti-money-laundering checks, customer due diligence and supervision. AFSA CEO Evgeniya Bogdanova added that users of unlicensed platforms miss out on asset protection, disclosure, complaints handling and dispute resolution. Outside the AIFC, crypto firms are supervised by the National Bank of Kazakhstan.

The case is a reminder that a global exchange can be licensed in one place and unwelcome in another: BingX, for example, was only just added to the EU's MiCA register. AFSA's notice does not say what happens to existing accounts. If you use an offshore platform, our guides on centralized vs decentralized exchanges and how to store crypto safely explain how to keep control of your coins.