A representative of the Kobea Group being awarded the licence. Photo from Napm.uz
The South Korean company Kobea Group has been awarded the licence to open the first cryptocurrency exchange in Uzbekistan, the Uzbek licensing authority NAPM (National Agency of Project Management) has announced (in Russian).
The Kobea Group describes itself as the technology advisory agency for digital economic development in Uzbekistan, including blockchain technologies. The company includes several Uzbeks among its leadership. According to Spot.uz (in Russian), in July 2018 Kobea and NAPM reached an agreement for the establishment of a national cryptocurrency exchange in Uzbekistan, together with an industrial mining centre, a blockchain academy and a research centre for the development of the blockchain industry.
Earlier that year, in February, Uzbek authorities announced plans to daw up a law regulating cryptocurrency trading, and President Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed a decree “On measures to regulate the activity of cryptocurrency exchanges in the Republic of Uzbekistan”. At the start of 2019, the procedure for licensing cryptocurrency exchanges was ratified, allowing only foreign companies with a capital of no less than 30,000 times the minimum wage to operate them. In order to acquire the right to open a cryptocurrency exchange, a foreign company must establish a subsidiary in Uzbekistan which must not count among its founders any citizens of the Central Asian country.
A cryptocurrency exchange is an organisation providing an electronic platform for the buying, selling and exchange of crypto assets (cryptocurrencies). Operations involving crypto assets and cryptocurrency exchanges are not covered by legislation regulating traditional assets and exchanges.
