BitGo, a US-regulated crypto custodian, will safeguard belongings for Central Asia’s first spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), which debuted Wednesday on the Astana Worldwide Change in Kazakhstan.
The Astana Worldwide Change (AIX), a inventory change working inside the Astana Worldwide Monetary Centre (AIFC) framework, introduced the itemizing of the Fonte Bitcoin Change Traded Fund (BETF) on Wednesday.
Managed by AIFC-registered asset supervisor Fonte Capital, BETF affords oblique funding entry to Bitcoin (BTC) to a variety of traders, together with retail individuals, AIX stated.
The BETF fund is bodily backed by Bitcoin held in custody of BitGo Belief, a US-based subsidiary of BitGo, which is thought for offering BTC custody to main US Bitcoin ETF issuers, together with ARK Make investments and 21Shares.
US-regulated chilly storage for Kazakhstan
BitGo’s involvement in Fonte Capital-issued spot Bitcoin ETF marks the primary time for the platform to offer institutional-grade Bitcoin entry to traders in Central Asia, the corporate stated in an announcement on X.
“Kazakhstan is coming into a brand new period for digital belongings,” the corporate stated, including that it’ll supply its custody companies by means of “safe, US-regulated chilly storage.”
Whereas BitGo publicly acknowledged its position within the new spot Bitcoin ETF, neither Fonte Capital nor the Astana Worldwide Change talked about the custodian of their bulletins. Cointelegraph reached out to AIX, Fonte and BitGo for remark however had not obtained a response by publication.
BitGo’s position is a “double-edged sword”
The rising position of platforms like BitGo in spot Bitcoin merchandise worldwide is a double-edged sword, in line with Shady El Damaty, digital identification innovator and co-founder of human.tech by Holonym.
“On one hand, you’re getting institutional-grade custody proper out of the gate, which issues for investor confidence. Then again, it highlights how concentrated this layer of infrastructure nonetheless is,” he instructed Cointelegraph.
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El Damaty highlighted the rising want for native crypto merchandise in growing markets, suggesting that counting on a single world participant isn’t a long-term resolution, however it nonetheless will get merchandise like spot Bitcoin ETFs to market sooner.
“BitGo’s involvement provides Kazakhstan an prompt credibility enhance,” he stated, including:
“Ideally, nations ought to be working towards constructing native custodians that meet the identical safety requirements. That means, you’re not simply importing monetary infrastructure, you’re rising it at dwelling, giving the market each sovereignty and resilience.”
Bakhrom Saydulloev, a neighborhood crypto insider and product lead at Mercuryo, echoed El Damaty’s view, emphasizing that robust native custody is essential for the monetary sovereignty of jurisdictions like Kazakhstan.
“However proper now utilizing a confirmed world custodian is the quickest path to credibility and international capital inflows,” Saydulloev instructed Cointelegraph.
Impression available on the market
Based in 2017, AIX is backed by the AIFC, the Shanghai inventory change, the Silk Street Fund and Nasdaq, dealing with round $130 million in month-to-month trades as of July 2025.
Whereas AIX volumes are modest in contrast with giants like Nasdaq — which noticed $73 billion in European fairness trades final month — the BETF launch is important because it supplies regulated Bitcoin entry to traders who’ve traditionally been excluded.
“Till now, there was no regulated, domestically listed product giving traders publicity to it,” Saydulloev stated, stressing that Kazakhstan has emerged as a serious participant within the crypto business, together with cryptocurrency mining.
“In areas the place conventional finance has left big gaps, instruments like this generally is a bridge, not only for traders, however for on a regular basis folks to start out collaborating within the digital financial system,” El Damaty stated.
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