Kazakhstan’s Alatau City Bank launches crypto checkout service with Binance Pay

Alatau City Bank in Kazakhstan has rolled out a crypto payment service at its POS terminals with Binance Pay, letting shoppers pay by QR code without prepaid cards or third-party apps. For PSPs and acquirers, the notable part is not the branding; it is the mechanics: crypto goes in, fiat tenge comes out for the merchant.

1. Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao said the service is now live in Alatau City Bank terminals, and that Kazakhstan already has 5,000 Binance Pay-enabled checkout points. That gives the rollout a scale that matters for anyone watching merchant acceptance infrastructure rather than just exchange activity.
2. At checkout, the buyer pays with cryptocurrency via QR code. The system, called Crypto Pay, converts digital assets, including USDT, into Kazakhstani tenge, so the merchant receives the amount shown on the receipt regardless of crypto price moves between payment and settlement.
3. The first public demonstration took place in April, with Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and representatives of the Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development in attendance. The bank said the service launch began in May, and the expansion to roughly 5,000 terminals took about two months.
4. The move sits next to another state-linked crypto initiative in the country: last year, Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development announced the launch of the Alem Crypto Fund with Binance’s local unit. The fund is intended to help authorities build reserves of cryptocurrency and crypto investment assets.