President of Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Zhaparov signed amendments to the Law on a National Bank, opening the path to the launch of digital catfish, national digital currency.

The new law recognizes the digital catfish by the national currency and the legal payment vehicle in the territory of Kyrgyzstan.

According to the document, the National Bank of Kyrgyzstan (NBK) received the exclusive right to release digital catfish, the development of the rules for applying for its circulation and management of a specialized platform for the third form of the national currency. Digital som will simplify budget payments and increase transaction transaction transparency, the country’s authorities say.

Earlier, the representative of the NBK told reporters that testing the digital catfish platform is scheduled for the second half of the year, but the final decision on the full -scale issue of the digital currency of the Kyrgyz Bank is expected no earlier than the end of 2026.

In March, the Kyrgyz government increased the requirements for the minimum authorized capital of cryptocurrency exchanges from 100 million to 10 billion soms (from $ 1.14 million to $ 114.3 million).