industries
A Company Operating in Two Markets: The Practical Differences
What has to be duplicated, what can be shared, and which differences cost the most to administer.
Five countries, counted separately
Five markets that get written about as one and behave as five. Every claim here names a country, and where two of them differ, the difference is the story.
All coverage
Data Gaps: What Nobody in the Region Publishes
Five things that would change how this subject is understood and are not measured anywhere I can find.
Why Regional Averages Mislead, With Three Examples
A single figure for Central Asia is almost always wrong for every country in it. Three cases where the average describes nobody.
Trade Settlement With China From Central Asia
Trade with China dominates the region's external commerce. How it is settled and where alternative rails appear.
Comparing Verification Requirements Across the Region
Onboarding requirements are similar in substance and differ in administration. What varies and what does not.
Internet Access and Mobile Money as a Precondition
Crypto adoption follows connectivity and existing digital payment habits. Where those are thin, nothing else matters.
Where Enforcement Is Active and Where It Is Only Written
A rule on paper and a rule enforced are different operating environments. How to tell which one you are in.
Labour Migration and the Money That Flows Back
Remittances are the region's most important cross-border flow. What migrants actually use and where crypto fits.
Currency Controls That Shape Crypto Use in Each Market
Where currency rules bind, crypto usage follows a predictable shape. The pattern is consistent and the detail is not.
Regional Exchanges Versus Global Platforms for Local Users
Four trade-offs between a venue built for this region and one built for everywhere, from a local user's position.
Tajikistan and Turkmenistan: What Little Is Documented
An honest account of two markets where reliable public information is scarce, and what that absence itself implies.
Cross-Border Payments Between Two Regional Neighbours
Paying from one Central Asian country to another is harder than paying to Europe. The reasons are structural.
Which Stablecoins Circulate Where, and Why
Token preference is regional and driven by what local venues quote, not by the merits of the issuers.
Banking Access for Crypto Firms, Country by Country
The binding constraint on crypto business in this region is banking, not regulation. How it differs across the five markets.
Kyrgyzstan as a Payments Route: What It Offers
A small market with an outsized role in regional flows. What drives that and what the risks are.
Mining Capacity in the Region After the Power Shortages
Mining followed cheap power into the region and then collided with grid limits. What that did, country by country.
Uzbekistan Licensing Against Kazakhstan Licensing
Two frameworks built around different assumptions. What each one restricts and what that means for a business choosing between them.
Remittance Corridors Across Central Asia, Priced
Four corridors, the routes available on each, and why the published cost is a poor guide to the delivered cost.
Where Crypto Is Legal to Hold and Where It Is Not
Holding, trading and operating a platform are three different questions. Conflating them produces most of the confusion in the region.
Five Countries, Five Positions on Crypto: A Comparison
The region is reported as one market and governs the subject five different ways. A country-by-country starting point.