Government Acceptance for Crypto in Thailand........but not Steem :-(

Amidst the doom and gloom of this slight downturn in Crypto prices, accredited to the hack of a small Korean Exchange, Coinrail. There was a little bit of positive news came from Thailand in the form of government acceptance via a fairly unobtrusive regulatory framework due to be implemented later this month.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Friday has announced a supervisory framework for the Thai market participants, mainly brokers, exchanges and dealers.

All the market protagonists, including those considering offering ICOs, are required to register within 90 days of the effective date and must also receive approval from the Finance ministry to continue to offer digital asset services.

'Digital assets' and 'Digital tokens' are how the Thai government define cryptocurrencies and tokens in a 100 section document which form a royal decree regulating digital assets that took effect on May the 14th.

So, what can you and can't you do in Thailand?

Well, basically, the SEC is allowing the trading, buying and selling and use within the context of ICOs, a total of seven cryptocurrency trading pairs. Not too difficult to guess what they are!

Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple, Bitcoin cash, Ethereum classic and.........Stellar! Yup, me neither!

OK, no place for Steem then at the moment but hopefully this list will expand after a period of responsible trading and government 'supervision'.

The brokers themselves have to adhere to rules regarding their levels of liquidity whilst anyone considering an ICO stick to strict limits regarding the amount of tokens offered to ultra high worth individuals and institutional investors, allowing only a maximum of 300,000baht (around USD 10k) to individuals.

Obviously there are license fees and the Thai government, never one to look a gift horse in the mouth has also set a tax, (sorry, its not a tax, its a 'license fee'!) of 0.002% of trading volume capped at 20million Thai Baht annually, sadly no doubt, a cost passed straight on to the userbase.

Opinion

It's an interesting piece of legislation which goes some way to 'legitimise' crypto which can only be a good thing for its perceived trust and encouraging more people to dip a toe in.
How much more control will be leveraged by the government as adoption increases is however, open to speculation. This is Thailand after all.
Overall a good thing I think but with future reservations about the amount of government interference. At least they are making an effort and actually accepting its legitimacy as a financial instrument.

As a matter of interest, in Thailand I use www.coins.co.th (NOT an affiliate link) which was started in the Philippines, and whilst only dealing with Bitcoin, allows a very smooth interface between the Crypto and Fiat spheres, even allowing me to cash in and cash out at regular banks and ATMs, pay my bills in Crypto and generally do almost everyday financial transactions using Bitcoin. The spread is a little high but it's certainly an excellent real-world application. Go check them out and have a look how it could and should be :-)

Thanks for dropping by. Your Upvotes and Resteems are gratefully received but your comments and engagement are truly appreciated. Let's keep up the debate. Thank you

@nathen007

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