Uzbekistan has started testing the HUMO stable token, a digital asset designed to track the value of one soum under a regulatory pilot supervised by the Central Bank and the National Agency. The token will be issued by HUMO Digital, which entered the country’s special-regime registry on September 2.

The pilot sets out a tightly controlled structure for issuance and backing, but the official one-soum parity will ultimately depend on how issuance, collateral, redemption, and real-world payments work in practice. Regulators have said redemption will be tested during the initial pilot period, which is set to run for one year.

Government securities will back issuance

Under Uzbekistan’s amended stable-token rules, issuers may back tokens with either reserved currency or government securities. For HUMO, the announced model uses government securities owned by the issuer rather than customer funds held as deposits.

Those securities must be held in a way that protects the reserve. The Central Securities Depository is required to block them in favor of the Central Bank, and their nominal value cannot drop below the total nominal value of HUMO tokens in circulation. The rules also bar issuers from building reserves with loans, pledged assets, or other borrowed money.

Reserve assets are limited to supporting token redemption and cannot be used for unrelated obligations. HUMO Digital, however, retains the investment income generated by the government securities backing the token.

Redemption mechanics remain a key unanswered point

Each HUMO token is to be created against eligible collateral, while redemptions are expected to remove tokens when holders convert them back. That two-way process is central to whether the token can stay close to one soum in actual use rather than only on paper.

The pilot announcement confirms that regulators will test redemption, but several practical details have not been disclosed. Public materials do not specify who will be eligible to redeem, what minimum redemption size may apply, how long processing could take, or whether retail users will face fees.

Those details matter because limited or slow redemption can weaken an official peg if holders cannot easily exchange tokens back at face value. The Central Bank also retains the power to restrict operations if it identifies risks to liquidity or financial stability.

More than 20 merchants are expected to join

The National Agency’s pilot notice says more than 20 merchants are expected to take part in testing HUMO for payments for goods and services inside Uzbekistan. Licensed crypto-service provider Asterium is supporting the project alongside banks, merchants, and other participating businesses.

According to the plan, project partners will connect banking, payment-processing, and blockchain systems to handle settlement. Even so, the public documentation leaves open several operational questions, including whether every merchant will keep HUMO directly or receive automatic settlement in soum instead.

Merchant acceptance could help support the token’s target value in day-to-day spending. At the same time, the effective value to users may still be shaped by transaction fees, quoted prices, and any conversion costs involved in using the token at checkout.

Pilot status and legal context

The available regulatory materials do not classify HUMO as a bank deposit. Instead, the token represents an obligation of HUMO Digital under its white paper or customer contract, while token holders do not directly own the government securities used as backing.

That distinction also means the public notices do not state that HUMO is deposit-insured or that it earns a bank-style return. The blocked securities are intended to protect reserve coverage and allow oversight, but ownership of those assets remains with the issuer.

The first pilot period lasts one year and may be extended. More broadly, Uzbekistan’s special legal regime can continue for longer, but the total period under that framework cannot exceed three years. The next confirmed step is the live testing of issuance, redemption, and merchant payments under regulator supervision.

Source: Coin Edition