Today in crypto, Kazakhstan launched its first state-backed crypto reserve in partnership with Binance, Polish lawmakers passed a sweeping bill to regulate digital assets, and Hyperliquid debuted 4,600 Hypurr NFTs on HyperEVM.
Kazakhstan debuts state-backed crypto fund with BNB
Kazakhstan has established a state-backed crypto reserve in partnership with Binance, marking the country’s latest move into digital assets.
The initial digital asset in the fund’s portfolio is BNB (BNB), the utility token that drives transactions, fees, and governance on Binance’s blockchain, according to a Monday announcement on the Kazakhstan government’s website.
The announcement did not specify how much BNB was purchased to seed the fund, nor did it give any details about what other crypto investments might follow.
The fund, called Alem Crypto Fund, was created by the Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development and is managed by Qazaqstan Venture Group under the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC).
“The primary objective of the fund is to make long-term investments in digital assets and to build strategic reserves,” the announcement reads.
Binance has been a close partner of the Kazakhstan government since 2022, when its then CEO, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, signed a memorandum of understanding with Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Digital Development to help develop the country’s crypto regulatory framework.
The news was announced less than a week after Kazakhstan rolled out its own tenge-backed stablecoin, KZTE, on the Solana network through a partnership with Mastercard, Intebix, and Eurasian Bank.
Poland advances strict crypto bill, sparking public backlash
Polish lawmakers approved a bill regulating the crypto asset market, introducing key restrictions and establishing a dedicated supervisory authority.
Poland’s lower house of parliament, the Sejm, voted in favor of a Crypto-Asset Market Act on Friday, sending the bill to the Senate for consideration.
Bill 1424, which has yet to reflect the apparent third-reading vote in the Sejm, introduced a licensing regime for crypto asset service providers (CASPs), aligning Poland’s regulations with the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) framework.
The bill’s passage has sparked a strong community response over its restrictive provisions, which introduce criminal liability for violations, including fines up to 10 million Polish zlotys ($2.8 million) and prison terms of up to two years.
The bill designates the Polish financial supervision authority, the Komisja Nadzoru Finansowego (KNF), as the primary regulator of the country’s crypto asset market.
Under the legislation, all CASPs — including exchanges, issuers and custody providers, both domestic and foreign — must obtain a license from the KNF to operate in Poland.
To secure a license, CASPs are required to submit a comprehensive application detailing their corporate structure, capital adequacy, internal controls and compliance systems, risk management policies and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) procedures.
Timeline of Poland’s Crypto-Asset Market Act (Bill 1424) as of Thursday (translated by Google). Source: Sejm
Early Hyperliquid user sells airdropped Hypurr NFT for $467,000
Early adopters of the perpetuals-focused layer-1 blockchain Hyperliquid were rewarded handsomely on Sunday after the Hyper Foundation finally airdropped the much-awaited Hypurr non-fungible token collection.
The whopping $467,000 sake of Hypurr NFT #21. Source: OpenSea
At the time of writing, the Hypurr NFTs have a current floor price of around 1,458 Hyperliquid (HYPE), or $68,700, according to OpenSea data.
However, there have already been eye-watering sales well above that range. The Hypurr #21 NFT with the extremely rare “Knight Ghost Armor” and “Knight Helm Ghost” traits went for 9,999 HYPE, worth $467,000, on Sunday.