Kazakhstan seizes crypto stash from popular blogger - Coinfea

Coinfea · 2026-01-15T15:58:14+00:00

Kazakhstan is pursuing blogger Qaisar Qamza for allegedly profiting from illegal online gambling ads. His social media promotion led to the seizure of 182,700 USDT as authorities seek his international arrest. The government is also tightening regulations on cryptocurrency.

Coinfea

2026-01-15 15:58:14

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Kazakhstan law enforcement is now on the hunt for a prominent blogger who has been accused of making a lot of cryptocurrency by illegally advertising online gambling in the Central Asian nation.

The suspect is known as Qaisar Qamza and has already had at least some of his coin wealth seized by the government in Astana, as revealed in a statement by the country’s financial watchdog. The famous blogger from Kazakhstan is now wanted internationally on allegations of promoting illegal gambling on the Internet, the Kazakhstan Financial Monitoring Agency (AFM) announced.

Kazakhstan goes after popular blogger for illicit activities

In the past five years, the 30-year-old Kaisar Kamza Bakytzhanuly was active under the handle “qais_arr” on Instagram, where he had 2.4 million subscribers, and administered a closed Telegram channel with 368,000 members. He also had a TikTok account and a YouTube channel. Using his social media accounts, he regularly uploaded videos and other commercial materials directly linking to a website for online betting.

He also offered followers his personal promo code, which provided special bonuses to users, the agency said. In its notice posted on Thursday, which was quoted by the Russian business news portal RBC and local media, the AFM detailed further: “Kamza, K.B., advertised the online platform aimed at attracting citizens to participate in gambling, which allowed him to earn income in the form of rewards and percentages.”

The blogger received remuneration for his services in the U.S.-dollar pegged stablecoin Tether. Assets amounting to 182,700 USDT have been seized based on a court order, the regulator also noted. To conceal his illegal income, the suspect used a crypto wallet, which received payments from the organizers of the online casino,” the authority stated, asking for any information about his whereabouts that could lead to his detention.

While working to liberalize and regulate crypto transactions in its economy, the government of Kazakhstan has been cracking down on crypto-related crime. It remains unclear what the government intends to do with all that digital cash. However, the National Bank of Kazakhstan unveiled in November that it’s going to build a national cryptocurrency reserve. The latter should be established in the first half of 2026.

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