Congratulations to Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov on his newly announced national digital currency. And further congratulations to Changpeng “CZ†Zhao, Japarov’s advisor, who helped facilitate this launch, on his pardon from President Donald Trump two days ago.
To catch you up on what Kyrgyzstan is, it’s a mountainous, landlocked, former Soviet Republic that borders northwest China. Now that you have your bearings, that country has just announced a national stablecoin in partnership with Binance, the company Zhao co-founded, and where he used to work as CEO.
According to Zhao’s post on X, the currency—which is pegged to the Russian ruble—is a central bank digital currency (CBDC), a digital version of a national currency, set to be used for government payments. It was launched on the BNB blockchain, the blockchain created by Zhao’s former company Binance.
Since not long after his release from prison for a conviction related to failing to prevent money laundering, Zhao had been lobbying for Trump to pardon him. A New York Times report found that in addition to pushing for a pardon, Zhao had been publicly praising Trump on podcasts, paying for lobbyists who had cozy relationships with Trump and his allies, and making a deal that resulted in a windfall for World Liberty Financial, the Trump family crypto company.
Trump, for his part, signed his signature piece of crypto legislation, the GENIUS Act, in July. It establishes a regulatory framework for stablecoins not unlike the new one Kyrgystan just created, and helps to deepen the involvement of cryptocurrencies in the U.S. economy.
For all we know, there’s nothing wrong with any of this. It might all be just fine.
