Binance co-founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao has proposed Bitcoin and BNB as the first digital assets to build Kyrgyzstan’s national crypto reserves.

On May 5, Zhao shared on X that he had advised Kyrgyzstan to start with Bitcoin (BTC) and BNB (BNB) when building its national crypto reserve. In 2024, Forbes claimed that Zhao holds about 94 million BNB tokens, or 64% of BNB’s circulating supply. At the time of writing, these tokens are worth about $55 billion. 

The proposal followed Zhao’s earlier announcement that he had begun advising Kyrgyzstan’s National Investment Agency (NIA) on blockchain and crypto-related matters.

On April 3, Zhao confirmed he’s been officially and unofficially advising governments on crypto frameworks and blockchain solutions. The former Binance CEO said that he finds the work extremely meaningful. 

Source: Changpeng Zhao

Binance to launch crypto payments in Kyrgyzstan

A month after CZ announced his role in advising Kyrgyzstan, Binance announced a partnership with the country to launch a crypto payments service. 

On May 4, Binance signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the NIA to introduce Binance Pay to the country, enabling crypto transactions. The partnership also aims to boost crypto education in the country, with Binance Academy set to work with government agencies to develop blockchain-focused educational programs. 

On April 17, Binance CEO Richard Teng said in a Financial Times interview that the exchange had been advising countries on crypto reserves. 

Kyrgyzstan has been making moves to become a digital asset-friendly jurisdiction. On April 17, Kyrgyzstan President Sadyr Zhaparov signed a law authorizing a central bank digital currency pilot project while giving the national currency’s digital form a legal tender status. 

Related: Pakistan appoints Changpeng Zhao as crypto adviser as adoption heats up

Kyrgyzstan reportedly plans a gold-backed stablecoin

The country also reportedly plans to launch a gold-backed stablecoin. The gold-backed stablecoin will be pegged to the United States dollar and called the Gold Dollar (USDKG). This will be backed by $500 million in gold provided by the country’s Ministry of Finance. 

Cointelegraph reached out to the country’s Ministry of Finance to confirm the reports but did not get a response before publication. 

Magazine: Crypto wanted to overthrow banks, now it’s becoming them in stablecoin fight

Michael Saylor’s Strategy, one of the world’s largest corporate Bitcoin investors, slowed its BTC purchases last week as the cryptocurrency briefly surged above $97,000.

Strategy acquired 1,895 Bitcoin (BTC) for $180.3 million during the week from April 28 to May 4 at an average price of $95,167 per BTC, the firm announced in its latest Form-8 filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Strategy’s latest Bitcoin purchase is one of the smallest made by the company this year, alongside a comparatively meagre 130 BTC purchase in March.

Source: Michael Saylor

The latest buy is 87% less than the previous purchase of 15,355 BTC announced last Monday.

Semler boosts buying despite rising prices

While Saylor’s Strategy cooled its Bitcoin buying spree last week, others upped their appetite for BTC.

Semler Scientific, a publicly traded US healthtech firm, bought 167 Bitcoin for $16.2 million in the period from April 30 to May 2 at an average purchase price of $97,093 BTC.

Announced on May 5, the purchase by Semler was up at least 50% from the previous 111 BTC purchase by the firm announced on April 25.

Bitcoin price chart in the past 30 days. Source: CoinGecko

As of May 2, Semler held 3,634 BTC, acquired for an aggregate of $322.3 million at an average purchase price of $88,668 per BTC.

Semler’s Bitcoin holdings are considerably smaller than Strategy’s, which held 555,450 BTC as of May 4, acquired for $68,550 per BTC.

This is a developing story, and further information will be added as it becomes available.

Magazine: Crypto wanted to overthrow banks, now it’s becoming them in stablecoin fight

Cryptocurrency investment products attracted $2 billion in new inflows last week, according to the European investment firm CoinShares.

Global crypto exchange-traded products (ETPs) have added $5.5 billion in inflows in the past three weeks, according to the latest weekly report from CoinShares.

With the new inflows, total assets under management (AUM) in all crypto ETPs worldwide jumped 3.3% from $151 billion to $156 billion.

Although the positive trend has continued for the past three weeks, the latest weekly inflows were down 41% from last week’s $3.4 billion of inflows — the third-largest crypto ETP inflows on record.

Inflows slowed down despite new Bitcoin gains

The slowdown in crypto ETP inflows came despite Bitcoin (BTC) seeing some brief gains last week, with the price rising from about $94,300 on April 28 to an intraweek high above $97,000 on May 2, according to data from CoinGecko.

In the trading week from April 28 to May 2, Bitcoin saw $1.8 billion of inflows, down 43% from the week before.

Crypto ETP flows by asset as of May 3, 2025 (in millions of US dollars). Source: CoinShares

However, bearish investors increased positions as short Bitcoin ETPs saw a 300% spike in inflows compared to the previous week, up to $6.4 million from $1.6 million.

Altcoins Ether (ETH) and XRP (XRP) saw ETP inflows of $149 million and $10 million, respectively.

Related: BlackRock Bitcoin ETF buys $970M in BTC as inflows surge, boost market

With Bitcoin accounting for 98% of all year-to-date crypto ETP inflows, total inflows this year amounted to $5.6 billion as of May 3.

Inflows concentrated with BlackRock’s iShares

According to CoinShares data, crypto ETP inflows were highly concentrated with BlackRock’s iShares products, which saw as much as $2.7 billion last week.

Still, crypto ETPs by issuers like ARK Invest and Fidelity Investments were bleeding last week, with outflows amounting to $458 million and $201 million, respectively.  

Crypto ETP flows by issuer as of May 3, 2025 (in millions of US dollars). Source: CoinShares

Other issuers such as Bitwise, Grayscale and ProShares recorded minor outflows for their crypto ETP products last week, totaling $36 million, $31 billion and $25 million, respectively.

Magazine: Bitcoin to $1M ‘by 2029,’ CIA tips its hat to Bitcoin: Hodler’s Digest, April 27 – May 3