When Sadyr Japarov took office as president of Kyrgyzstan six years ago, he said it would be his first and only term. Now he wants another. The convicted hostage-taker turned populist politician announced in mid-August that he would seek reelection, saying the country’s economic transformation remains at the top of his agenda. Few things have been more critical to that drive than Kyrgyzstan’s unlikely ascent in the global cryptocurrency economy.

During Japarov’s first term, the value of transactions handled by Kyrgyzstan’s licensed crypto firms increased more than 500-fold, from about $60 million in 2022 to roughly $30 billion in 2025, according to government estimates. Last year, the blockchain…