Thailand’s financial regulator the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has confirmed five ICOs are ready to raise funds via the country’s new fundraising regulations, local media Bangkok Post reported June 13. Following new regulations governing cryptocurrencies that took effect May 14, ICOs will face obligatory requirements to register with the regulator, along with various other restrictions. According to Thawatchai Kiatkwankul, director of corporate finance at the SEC’s equity department, out of a total of 50 prospective offerings, only five unnamed ICOs are “ready” to go ahead under the new legal framework. “Projects which can be [easily vetted] and have commercial …

The Bank of Thailand (BoT) is considering issuing its own cryptocurrency, the bank’s governor revealed in a speech June 5. In his keynote on Thai economic development at Nomura Investment Forum Asia (NIFA) in Singapore, BoT governor Veerathai Santiprabhob spoke of a new project in which the central bank and other Thai banks join forces to develop a “new way of conducting interbank settlement” using a central bank-issued digital currency (CBDC). According the bank, the adoption of its own cryptocurrency by the banking system would reduce the transaction and validation time as well as its costs “due to less intermediation …

Thailand’s largest bank has joined a trade finance program utilizing R3’s Corda distributed ledger technology (DLT), sources reported May 24. R3, a New York-based consortium of over 200 companies, uses technology based on blockchain to allow businesses to develop applications on top of its Corda platform. Bangkok Bank, which joined the R3 Consortium in August 2016, is now on board to test trade finance improvements via Marco Polo, R3’s joint initiative with TradeIX’s TIX platform. First launching in 2017, Marco Polo focuses on removing middleman structures from various aspects of trade finance including risk mitigation. “We are delighted to be …

Several major global banks have successfully completed a cross-border payment pilot test using Thai bank Krungsri’s (Bank of Ayudhya) Blockchain Interledger, according to a press release May 22. The pilot, conducted in the Bank of Thailand’s (BOT) regulatory sandbox, was executed by Japan’s Mitsubishi Group, their banking unit MUFG Bank, and the Standard Chartered Singapore bank. The test involved sending money in a period of seconds from a Thailand-based Mitsubishi Group subsidiary to the Standard Chartered account of a Singapore-based Mitsubishi Group Subsidiary, using Kungsri’s Interledger tech. Thakorn Piyapan, head of the Krungsri Consumer Group and the Digital Banking and …

Thailand's Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) held a focus group on cryptocurrency regulation today, May 21, streamed on Facebook Live. The hearing focused on the SEC’s approach to crypto-related businesses and fundraising through Initial Coin Offerings (ICO), local news outlet Siam Blockchain reports. Today’s focus group clarified that ICOs can only raise funds in the Thai baht and cryptocurrencies permitted by the SEC – those that “have enough liquidity and are not associated with money laundering.” Projects running ICOs, whose applications must be completed in 60 days, will also need to adhere to KYC and AML standards. Siam Blockchain also …

Thailand’s awaited tax framework for cryptocurrencies has been announced this week by the Thai Finance Minister, local news outlet Nikkei Asian Review reported Friday, March 30. Apisak Tantivorawong reported during a March 27 cabinet meeting that crypto trades will be taxed with a 7 percent value added tax (VAT), and returns taxed with a 15 percent capital gains tax. The first draft of the digital asset regulations, released March 14, showed that the expected tax ceiling for the digital gains crypto tax in Thailand was 15 percent. The previous uncertainty in Thailand surrounding crypto regulations, particularly in regards to Initial …

The price of the digital currency OmiseGo (OMG) has been experiencing decline as of mid-August 2017, and eventually recovered after the show of support by the Thai Ministry of Finance. The company is actively operating in Asia, particularly in such countries as Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore and Japan. Among the company’s investors are Golden Gate Ventures and SBI Investment. Omise’s prominent list of advisors include industry experts Vitalik Buterin, Vlad Zamfir, Gavin Wood and Joseph Poon. The cryptocurrency has previously reached an all-time high of $9.3 per token recently, but this came down to $7.9 and has recently recovered to $8.02, …

Note: the following article was submitted as part of Cointelegraph’s Super Writers Contest. On a recent trip to the stunning Thai island of Koh Tao, I was introduced to the Hundi system. This ancient system of informal money transfer through a network of brokers is ubiquitous in areas where migrant workers have a duty to send money back to families in their homeland. Remittances to Burma You may recall that Koh Tao is the stunning Thai island where two British backpackers were murdered last year, allegedly by two Burmese migrants. The fact that the accused are Burmese is no surprise …

[Update: A source has come forward to reaffirm that the original article from CoinDesk was innacurate. The fire actually occurred on October 14, 2014 as reported by the local media outlet, Tairath. ] Cowboyminers, a Bitcoin mining company located in Thailand, has been completely destroyed by fire. The five megawatt facility was located in Bangkok and had more than 2,000 active miners at the time of the fire. Cowboyminers was a mining co-op which relied primarily on Spondoolies-Tech and Innosilicon hardware. According to local authorities there were two security guards on duty at the time of the blaze and foul …