Skip to content
Blockchain Posts

regulation

AIFC court bars Coinbase, BingX, HTX and three more from Astana zone

AFSA won a default judgment on September 15 enjoining six exchanges from operating inside the Astana zone. LBank was dropped after blocking users.

by 3 min read
regulationexploitkazakhstancoinbasehtx

The AIFC Court issued a default judgment on September 15, 2026 barring six crypto exchanges — Coinbase, BingX, HTX (Huobi Global), BitMart, Bitcoin.com and WEEX — from offering digital-asset services to users inside the Astana International Financial Centre without an AFSA licence. The judgment also binds Google and Apple as app-store operators to geo-restrict the listed apps. The order became public via an AFSA statement published October 20.

What happened

Case No. 10 of 2026 was brought by the Astana Financial Services Authority (AFSA), Kazakhstan's financial regulator for the AIFC special zone. Justice Sir Stephen Richards entered a default judgment after the named operators failed to respond within the court's deadline. On September 18, 2026 the court issued a Variation Order removing LBank from the injunction after LBank blocked access to its services from Kazakhstan and addressed AFSA's concerns.

Primary filings:

What is prohibited

The injunction orders the operators to stop "providing, offering or advertising digital asset-related services" within the AIFC without the requisite licence, and extends to distributing or making the mobile apps available within the AIFC through any platform. AFSA says it will transmit the orders to Google Play and Apple's App Store "to restrict access" for AIFC users. The court declined to issue a separate injunction against the two app stores, directing AFSA to first negotiate the geofencing steps directly with them.

AFSA chief executive Evgeniya Bogdanova framed the ruling as the "result of extensive and consistent efforts by AFSA's Supervision and Enforcement teams." The regulator says it had sent warnings to more than 20 crypto platforms in 2025 before bringing proceedings in early 2026.

Scope — AIFC only, not Kazakhstan nationwide

The AIFC is a special jurisdiction inside Astana with its own English-language common-law court and its own financial regulator; AFSA's writ does not run across the rest of Kazakhstan. The injunction therefore bars the six operators from targeting users located inside the AIFC and from distributing apps within that perimeter — not from operating elsewhere in Kazakhstan, where licensing sits with other authorities.

Impact for the named exchanges

  • Coinbase: already pulled retail services from Kazakhstan at various points; the AIFC order forces an explicit geofence on any residual activity inside the zone.
  • HTX, BingX, BitMart, WEEX, Bitcoin.com: largely unlicensed in the AIFC and have been operating by default; the order adds a court-backed app-store takedown pathway.
  • LBank: off the hook after complying with AFSA. The variation signals a settlement route for other named operators willing to geofence.

What to watch

  1. Whether Google and Apple honor AFSA's geofencing request without separate court orders in their own jurisdictions.
  2. Whether any of the remaining five operators file an application to set aside the default judgment (the AIFC Court Rules permit this on a timely application showing a defence with a real prospect of success).
  3. Whether AFSA extends similar proceedings to other platforms on its 2025 warning list.

Context — regulators go for app-store takedowns

Kazakhstan now joins a widening list of jurisdictions pulling exchange apps rather than suing offshore operators directly: India (OFAC-sanctioned app delistings), the Philippines SEC (Binance app in 2024), and various EU regulators post-MiCA. A court-ordered injunction tied to a licensing regime, delivered to Google and Apple, is quickly becoming the enforcement primitive of choice when the operator itself sits outside the local jurisdiction.

Related stories