In a Statement published on March 23, 2022 (as translated using Google Translate), the Thai Securities and Exchange Commission announced that, starting April 1, 2022, digital assets (e.g., Bitcoin) will be banned as a method of payment. Business operators who find that customers are using digital assets to pay for goods or services must notify the user and take action against them, such as suspending or terminating their accounts.
The Statement provided a number of reasons for this action. First, there is a risk to the stability of the country’s payment system in that users are not protected if there are any problems, because the public blockchain is not regulated. Also, there is potentially a problem for the Bank of Thailand to maintain stability when economic conditions so require if there is a unit of currency other than the Thai Bhat. And, the volatility in the value of digital assets can make the user’s spending or the payee’s income highly uncertain. Plus, there is the risk if money laundering.
Trading and investing in digital assets is still permitted. And the SEC stated that it saw the benefits of various technologies behind digital assets, such as blockchain, and emphasized that it still supported the use of technology to further innovation.
