The National Bank of the Kyrgyz Republic has signed a memorandum of understanding with blockchain security firm CertiK, creating a long-term framework for cooperation on the country’s planned central bank digital currency and on broader digital asset supervision.
The Digital Som is Kyrgyzstan’s official CBDC project, intended to modernize payments, widen access to financial services, and reinforce the resilience of the national payments system.
Under the agreement, the two sides will share expertise and examine joint work on technical security, regulatory advice, continuous monitoring, and staff development.
The arrangement is designed as an enduring partnership rather than a one-off audit.
CertiK and the central bank plan to collaborate on blockchain and digital-asset security, including assessments, formal verification, cybersecurity, and operational resilience.
They will also explore advisory work covering anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorist-financing controls, custody arrangements, security standards, and licensing expectations.
A further strand involves possible use of CertiK’s supervision and compliance tools so that risk monitoring can sit closer to day-to-day oversight.
Training and knowledge transfer are included so that capacity can be built inside the National Bank over time.
The timing is significant. Kyrgyzstan has already treated the Digital Som as legal tender and has set an internal timetable to complete initial platform testing by the end of 2026, with live trials expected in 2027.
At the same time, the country has rapidly expanded licensed virtual-asset activity and is preparing a unified electronic platform for licensing and supervision of virtual-asset service providers.
Pairing a sovereign issuer with a specialist security firm reflects a view that CBDC infrastructure and digital-asset oversight are now core financial plumbing, not experimental side projects.
For CertiK, the memorandum extends earlier work with regulators, including advisory support in the United States and responses to consultations from the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
The Kyrgyz engagement places that experience inside a central-bank setting, where security, compliance, and operational standards are among the strictest in finance.
Officials at the National Bank have stressed the value of exchanging practical knowledge on blockchain security, cybersecurity, AML/CFT, and the analysis of digital-asset transactions.
CertiK has framed the same point from the other direction: digital-asset infrastructure needs security and risk management built in from design through ongoing operation.
The memorandum does not itself launch the Digital Som or impose new laws.
It creates a structured channel for dialogue, technical assessment, and possible deployment of monitoring tools as the central bank moves from design and pilot work toward real-world use.
It now remains to be seen if the relationship becomes a template for other central banks will depend on how the planned assessments, advisory work, and capacity-building actually unfold.
For now, it signals that Kyrgyzstan wants security and supervisory capability treated as first-order requirements while it builds a state digital currency and a more formal digital-asset regime.