Crypto Exchanges & Regulation – Top exchanges in Uzbekistan by Coincub criteria
| Total population | 37,543,167 |
| GDP (in USD Millions) | 114,970 |
| Total # of universities | 179 |
| Leading blockchain universities | - |
| Jobs in blockchain | - |
| Bitcoin mining | 0.30% |
| CBDC stage | Research (early) |
| Crypto received (in USD$) | - |
| Crypto sent | - |
| Bitcoin ATMs | - |
| Bitcoin nodes | - |
| Companies with bitcoin in treasury | - |
| Population % owning crypto | 3% |
| Crypto exchanges based in country | - |
| Bitcoin Interest | - |
| ICOs (Initial Coin Offerings) | - |
| ICOs energy | - |
| Fraud crypto score | - |
| Crypto financial services | 2/50 | |
| Web3 population adoption | 0/20 | |
| Web3 environmental impact | 0/20 | |
| Crypto trading | 4.5/20 | |
| Web3 talent | 2/30 | |
| Web3 proliferation | 3/30 |
Which continents lead the way in crypto adoptions, and which are falling behind? Do continents display individual traits and characteristics? And is China pulling down Asia in the crypto race? North America is the world’s top crypto continent North America takes the top spot as the leading crypto continent in the latest 2022 Coincub world crypto […]
Uzbekistan now runs crypto through the National Agency for Perspective Projects (NAPP), which licenses exchanges, crypto stores and custodians, and blocks unlicensed foreign platforms. This involves lots of grand decrees and announcements with the officially stated aim of creating and developing digital currency and a blockchain enterprise hub for entrepreneurs. And it seems to be working. The founder of Telegram, Pavel Durov mentioned recently how “Uzbekistan has adopted some progressive laws in the field of blockchain”. To get this level of recognition from a tech leader means they are doing some things right.
Today, the potential of the digital economy and blockchain technologies is extremely promising. A long-standing decree given by the country’s President looked to promote the activity of companies in the field of crypto and blockchain technologies. The result is that these technologies are being introduced to the public sector on the basis of public-private partnerships. Pushing this new technology into the most potentially rewarding and strategically important projects is what is driving the digital economy. The promotion and development of blockchain technologies is, like so many countries around the world, one of the most pressing priorities of the Uzbekistan government and its institutions.
No surprise that the country has a number of crypto and blockchain educational courses available, all dedicated to helping professionals understand the advantage of blockchain currencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum along with learning on applications and programming based on Blockchain technology.
Recently, Uzbekistan started to be another one of the countries leading the discussions on how to regulate Security Token Offerings (STOs). The nation’s effort to become more crypto-friendly looks like the efforts is starting to pay off and along with crypto exchange regulation, the country is keen to promote blockchain startups. The country’s Digital Trust initiative is looking more favourably towards security token offerings STOs, than Initial Coin Offerings ICOs, as the latter is deemed to be less legitimate, possibly due to the bad reputation they gained in the early days.
Uzbekistan had become a busy centre for the mining of cryptocurrencies, just like other diverse locations such as Iceland and Kazakhstan. Formerly cheap and ready supplies of the electricity needed for the activity fuelled this activity but this has now changed (see above) and electricity is charged more highly to mining operations. Unfortunately, crypto hijacking has been prevalent in the country, this is where vulnerable mining operations are hijacked without consent and without electricity costs being paid. The result is that the country has one of the highest percentages of crypto-mining attacks anywhere.
According to the new regulations, residents of Uzbekistan can buy, sell, and exchange crypto assets domestically for their national currency. Non-residents are allowed to exchange cryptocurrencies for foreign fiat as well. However, the use of cryptocurrencies as a means of payment for goods and services is still prohibited (similar to Russia) and the Central Bank of Uzbekistan completely ruled out the proposal that Bitcoin would ever become legal tender.
Crypto exchanges, mining pools, and virtual asset service providers VASPs are required to become registered at a local level and residents can trade, buy or sell crypto-only on the local exchanges. These must verify the identity of users through the know-your-customer process – which has become increasingly common throughout the world in order to combat money laundering.
Exchanges and service providers are required to store transactional data for some 5 years – so quite strict – and crypto service providers must not facilitate trading with undisclosed agencies or asset providers.
The National Agency for Perspective Projects (NAPP), the country’s chief digital assets regulator, has granted permits to two firms to operate “cryptocurrency stores.” By 2025 NAPP’s public register lists more than four service providers, and several of them have had their licences suspended or reissued, which shows the regime is active, not just announced.
You can also use regulated leading exchanges like Coinbase or Binance.
Residents must use these licensed Uzbek platforms; trading on foreign, unlicensed exchanges is prohibited.
Just a few years back, the National Agency for Project Management within the Republic of Uzbekistan NAPU – now replaced by the Perspective Projects Agency PPA to oversee the industry – had banned residents from purchasing crypto, a big blow at the time but thought necessary to curb money laundering. Non-residents, however, were still allowed to participate in the country’s first regulated crypto exchange, the Uznex. Under the new direction, residents are allowed to conduct crypto exchanges and trading at their own risk. In line with this are designated systems of registration, issuance, and circulation of digital assets along with the authorizing of licensed crypto companies to issue their tokens. As of 2025 the expansion is underway, but it is tightly supervised and NAPP regularly suspends licences that don’t meet the rules.
The new PPA is dedicated to developing new policies for crypto to combat money laundering and create a regulatory sandbox for cryptocurrency projects. Under this edict, projects will be able to operate without a license and gain tax concessions for a short to medium-term period, following which they qualify to become fully regulated businesses (or be dismissed).
Current rules keep crypto operations of licensed individuals and companies at 0% tax, and VASPs get VAT and profit-tax relief until 1 January 2028. This comes along with moves to further regulate the industry – no bad thing and moves to only allow bitcoin and crypto trading through licensed exchanges.
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Read moreTaxation appears to be a moveable feast. Crypto miners in Uzbekistan looking to avoid new moves to double their electricity bills, and also get a break on their taxes have been given the option of buying and installing solar panels. Thus, those crypto miners that employ solar panel energy will be exempt from paying Uzbekistan income tax. Those who still suck power out of the national grid will have to pay double regular prices, plus tax plus added charges during peak hours. So, get those solar panels up and running boys!
What is the crypto tax in Uzbekistan for companies?
0%
0%
0%
As of mid-2025, operations with crypto-assets carried out through NAPP-licensed platforms remain tax-exempt, and the exemptions run until 2028.
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