Uzbekistan’s National Agency for Prospective Projects (NAPP) registered Humo Digital this week as a participant in a regulatory sandbox jointly overseen with the central bank, launching a pilot that will let more than 20 merchants accept HUMO, a stablecoin pegged 1:1 to the som and backed by government securities.
Uzbekistan is taking its stablecoin experiment from the regulatory sandbox into real-world commerce, launching a pilot that will test whether a government-security-backed digital token can function as a practical payment instrument.
The initiative marks a significant step in Uzbekistan’s broader push to integrate blockchain technology into its financial infrastructure without immediately exposing the wider economy to an untested payment system.
HUMO moves from token experiment to payments
NAPP registered HUMO Digital as a participant in the country’s special legal regime on Sept. 2, according to the agency’s registry. The project’s scope covers the issuance, circulation and redemption of HUMO, as well as its use for making and receiving payments.
The Central Bank said the pilot is intended to explore stable tokens as an innovative form of payment. The framework is based on Presidential Resolution PP-359, approved on Nov. 27, 2025, which established stable-token payment trials among Uzbekistan’s financial-technology development priorities.
That makes the Som-pegged stablecoin experiment more than a crypto-sector initiative. It is part of a wider government strategy aimed at modernizing the country’s financial and payment infrastructure.
The central bank has previously highlighted the broader role stablecoins can play in financial markets. In its monetary policy reporting, the institution described stablecoins as digital tokens that can serve as a medium of exchange, unit of account and store of value, while also noting the importance of the mechanisms used to maintain their stability.
Government securities form the backing
The defining feature of HUMO is its collateral structure.
Rather than relying on foreign-currency reserves, cryptocurrency collateral or an algorithm designed to maintain its price, HUMO is intended to be issued against Uzbek government securities. The token is denominated in the domestic currency, with one HUMO corresponding to one Uzbek som.
That structure could give the Som-pegged stablecoin a distinctive position in Uzbekistan’s digital-asset market, linking blockchain-based payments directly to sovereign securities.
The approach also reflects the country’s emphasis on controlled experimentation. The special legal regime allows authorities to test new financial technologies while monitoring the risks before deciding whether a model should be expanded.
Uzbekistan’s Central Bank Chairman Timur Ishmetov has previously stressed the importance of controlling the backing behind digital financial instruments. In September 2025, Ishmetov said authorities were examining both digital-currency and stablecoin options and emphasized that reserves and backing would need to be strictly controlled.
That concern is now embedded directly into the HUMO pilot.
Banks, Blockchain infrastructure and merchants join the test
The experiment will not operate in isolation from Uzbekistan’s existing financial system.
Participating banks’ payment-processing infrastructure will be integrated with blockchain infrastructure used by the project. Asterium JSC is also participating as a project partner and holds licenses covering crypto-depository, crypto-exchange and crypto-shop activities.
More than 20 merchants are expected to test HUMO payments, allowing the authorities to examine the token’s performance in actual commercial transactions.
This is an important distinction. The test is not simply asking whether a blockchain can transfer tokens. It is examining whether a blockchain-based, government-security-backed payment instrument can operate alongside banks, payment processors and merchants in a regulated environment.
The Som-pegged stablecoin will therefore be assessed across its full lifecycle — from issuance and circulation to redemption and payment acceptance.
The Central Bank has said regulators will pay particular attention to the adequacy and protection of the collateral, transaction transparency, operational and financial risks, cybersecurity, consumer protection and compliance with anti-money-laundering requirements.
Regulators face the bigger test
The initial pilot is scheduled to run for 12 months, although it can be extended under the applicable rules. The overall project cannot exceed three years.
During that period, authorities will also examine whether the system could create risks for monetary policy, financial stability or price stability.
That oversight will be crucial because the experiment places a privately issued token within the country’s regulated payment ecosystem. Its success will depend not only on maintaining the one-som peg, but also on proving that the underlying securities can be adequately safeguarded and that the infrastructure can withstand operational and cybersecurity risks.
For Uzbekistan, the Som-pegged stablecoin project could ultimately provide a blueprint for how domestic digital assets can interact with traditional financial infrastructure without immediately replacing existing payment systems.
The country has been building toward this experiment since its November 2025 fintech framework, which authorized pilot testing of stable tokens as payment instruments and established a broader agenda for financial technology development.
Now, the Som-pegged stablecoin has moved beyond policy documents and into merchant transactions. The results of those tests could determine whether HUMO remains a tightly controlled experiment or becomes a foundation for a broader generation of blockchain-based payments in Uzbekistan.
For regulators, the objective is straightforward: test the technology in the real economy, identify its weaknesses and measure its benefits before considering wider adoption. The Som-pegged stablecoin experiment could therefore become an important case study for other emerging markets exploring government-backed digital payment instruments.
