The Republic of Kazakhstan's Ministry of Culture and Information has officially confirmed that the Coinbase website has been blocked in the country.

Kazakhstani authorities have been blocking local IP addresses from accessing Coinbase since at least September.

An order from the Ministry of Culture and Information, according to a Nov. 7 report from Kursiv, blocked access to the Coinbase website.

According to ministry representatives, the request came from another government body, the Ministry of Digital Development, which accused Coinbase of infringing the Law on Digital Assets.

The Law on Digital Assets, which went into effect in February 2023, prohibits the issuance and trading of digital currencies, as well as cryptocurrency exchange operations, without a national license.

The authority of the Astana International Financial Center (AIFC), a Kazakhstan special economic zone, grants in-principle approval to operate.

Binance, Bybit, CaspianEx, Biteeu, ATAIX, Upbit, and Xignal&MT have all received approval from the Astana Financial Services Authority, which oversees the AIFC.

The first reports of Coinbase website access issues have surfaced the web in September, when the local Telegram media Finance.kz reported that the "great Kazakh investment firewall" blocks access not only to Coinbase but also to Kraken and other major global crypto exchanges.

Sources:

https://cointelegraph.com/news/kazakhstan-authorities-confirm-blocked-access-coinbase-report

https://kz.kursiv.media/2023-11-07/lgtn-coinbase/

https://t.me/FINANCEkaz/13501