Thailand’s Financial Regulator Outlines Forthcoming Rules on Digital Token Issuance

The Securities and Exchange Commission of Thailand has published a timeline for their digital token regulations to come into force. The regulator stated earlier today that they would take effect from July 16, 2018.

According to article in Reuters from today, the SEC of Thailand will require that issuers of digital tokens must be registered with them.

These issuers will then be eligible to offer digital assets to high net-worth investors, venture capital firms, private equity companies, and other institutional investors. The rules were detailed in a statement from the regulators earlier today. This development has followed a recent Royal Decree granting the Thai SEC jurisdiction over the space.

According to the pending regulations, digital token issuers will be able to off unlimited quantities of digital assets to the aforementioned groups. However, retail investors will be limited to buying tokens worth less than 300,000 baht ($9,050).

These issuers will be eligible to exchange either domestic currency (baht), or other cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, Litecoin, Ripple, and Stellar.

In March, NewsBTC reported on a change in tax legislation governing the cryptocurrency sector. The law states that there will be a 15% capital gains tax levied against profits made from the buying and selling of digital tokens. In addition, there will be a 7% value-added tax. However, according to Reuters, Thai Finance Minister Apisak Tantivorawong has stated that general investors will be exempted from this additional tax.

Earlier this week, it emerged that a group of Thai securities companies were planning on applying to the SEC for a license to launch a joint cryptocurrency exchange. By offering such a platform together, they hope to reduce the operating costs and share knowledge of the sector with one another.

The head of the Association of Securities Companies (ASCO), Pattera Dilokrungthirapop, stated that such firms were well-placed to offer digital asset trading since they were already familiar with the buying and selling of traditional securities:

“We are confident that investors will prefer trading with us, since we have been in the securities trading business for a long time… Investors can trust our trading system, which has secured asset preservation.”

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