Thailand Has Now 13 Officially Registered Crypto Businesses Including Exchanges, Brokers, and Dealers

The East Asian country of Thailand is taking some concrete measures to streamline regulations for cryptocurrency businesses operating on its homeland. In the last few months, Thailand has seen an increasing number of licensed crypto service providers in the country.

The country’s entire crypto sector is regulated by the Royal Decree on the Digital Asset Businesses B.E. 2561. The regulator categorizes digital asset businesses into three basic types: “digital asset broker”, “Digital asset dealer”, and “digital asset exchange”.

Considering all the three categories, the Thai regulator has now approved 13 cryptocurrency businesses to legally operate in the country. Interestingly, the Royal Decree has different definitions for cryptocurrency and digital tokens.

As per the regulator, Cryptocurrencies are “created for the purpose of being a medium of exchange for the acquisition of goods, services, or other rights”.

On the other hand, digital tokens are created “for the purpose of specifying the right of a person to participate in an investment in any project or business, or to acquire specific goods, services, or other rights under an agreement between the issuer and the holder.” 

The country’s top-most regulate aka the Thai Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved six crypto exchanges so far. The latest to join the list was ERX. The other are Satang Pro, BX, Huobi Thailand, Bitkub, and Zipmex.

All six exchanges have received the approval for both - cryptocurrencies and digital tokens. While most countries have banned the ICO process, Thailand is still regulating the Initial Coin Offerings (ICO) via licensed “ICO Portals”. Some of the licensed ICO portals include - SE Digital, T-Box, Longroot, and Bitherb.

The regulators define ICO as “a provider of an electronic system for facilitating the offering of newly issued digital tokens.” Its “duties include performing due diligence on the characteristics of digital tokens to be offered and qualifications of issuer, and ensuring completeness and accuracy of information contained in the registration statements, draft prospectus or any other information to be disclosed through the portal.”

Under the Thai Anti-Money Laundering Act, crypto brokers, crypto dealers, crypto exchanges, and ICO portals are all considered as financial institutions. The Thai regulator added that “Those who intend to operate a digital asset business shall be approved by the Minister of Finance upon recommendation of the SEC”.