A man has been arrested in Uzbekistan for illegally moving well over a million U.S. dollars’ worth of money through global cryptocurrency exchanges. While coin transactions are not prohibited in the Central Asian nation, trading platforms need government approval to operate in its jurisdiction. Uzbekistani trader to be prosecuted for using major crypto exchanges Uzbekistan’s Law enforcement agencies have detained a resident of the city of Andijan, in the southeastern Bukhara region, accused of illegal trading of digital assets “on an especially large scale.” According to a press release issued by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the citizen has conducted 2,400 transactions between April 20 and September 30, 2025. These were carried out on Binance, the world’s largest digital asset exchange by daily volume, and Bitget, another major coin trading platform, neither of which is currently licensed to operate in the country. The total value of the transactions, which included receiving, transferring, and exchanging assets, amounted to 1,373,824 USDT, or over 18 billion Uzbekistani sums, the local news outlet Podrobno.uz detailed in a report on Monday, quoting a Telegram post by the interior ministry. Two main channels were used to move the money, investigators established. Around 1 billion sums were transferred through the bank cards of intermediaries in order to conceal the operations. Another 757 million sums were deposited into accounts controlled by the trader. In either case, the funds end up in exchange-hosted wallets, from which they were eventually withdrawn. Uzbek authorities seized the detainee’s mobile phone, which had 15 email addresses on it, and confirmed he had been trading through a Binance account registered in his name. This is not the first time the suspect, whose identity and age were not revealed, has found himself in custody over this kind of offense. In August 2025, he was convicted of making illegal cryptocurrency transactions for 26 billion sums (more than $2.1 million). At that time, the court imposed a “restriction of liberty” penalty as he pleaded guilty. Police now believe he continued to trade even during the previous trial. The man will be prosecuted under an article of the former Soviet republic’s criminal code, which targets serious violations of the legislation governing the circulation of digital assets. Uzbekistan allows crypto trading only on licensed exchanges Cryptocurrency transactions are permitted in Uzbekistan, provided they are processed by exchanges approved by the government in Tashkent, the Russian crypto news outlet Bits.media noted in a report. Trading on platforms not licensed by the state brings administrative and even criminal liability. Last year, Uzbek law enforcement authorities arrested a 17-year-old teenager, also from the Bukhara region, again for illegal crypto trading. According to local media, he was facing up to five years in prison, the maximum penalty for illegal cryptocurrency turnover, which in his case amounted to 34 billion sums ($2.8 million). Like its neighbors in the region, Uzbekistan has been taking steps to regulate its growing crypto space. At the end of November, its Ministry of Justice revealed that stablecoin payments will be legalized in January 2026, as reported by Cryptopolitan. The department also announced that Uzbekistan-registered legal entities will be allowed to issue tokenized shares and bonds to be traded on a dedicated platform. Earlier in November, the country’s long-term leader, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, signed a decree “On measures for the further development of financial technology in Uzbekistan.” Its main purpose is to help attract $1 billion in foreign investments in the next five years and expand the nation’s fintech sector to 200 companies. Authorities plan to spend $50 million to achieve these goals. Officials are also exploring issuing a digital version of the national fiat currency, according to a September statement by the Governor of the Central Bank of Uzbekistan, Timur Ishmetov. If you're reading this, you’re already ahead. Stay there with our newsletter .
