What is the currency of Kazakhstan?

The currency of Kazakhstan is the Kazakhstani tenge. It is identified internationally by the ISO code KZT and commonly written with the symbol ₸.

Kazakhstan introduced the tenge on 15 November 1993, replacing the Russian ruble as the country established an independent monetary system after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The launch followed a presidential decree issued on 12 November, and the initial conversion rate was one tenge for 500 rubles. This made Kazakhstan one of the last former Soviet republics to leave the ruble zone.

The tenge is divided into 100 tiyn, though low-value tiyn coins are rarely encountered in daily commerce. Its name comes from Turkic words associated with balance, scales, and money, and it is linguistically related to terms such as the Uzbek tenga and Russian den’gi. The ₸ symbol was approved in 2007 and later received a Unicode character. Kazakhstan’s tenge is distinct from the Turkmen manat and the Kyrgyz som.