Thailand’s SEC to block unregistered crypto exchanges

Officials explained that this would increase the effectiveness of the fight against money laundering

22.04.2024 - 12:05

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What’s new? Thai authorities will restrict the operation of unregistered crypto exchanges to improve the effectiveness of the fight against online crime. The local Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will compile a list of such platforms for the Ministry of Digital Economy to block access to their websites.

SEC statement

What else is known? The SEC notes that blocking unauthorized crypto exchanges will prevent them from being used for money laundering. Officials cited similar experiences in other countries such as India and the Philippines.

They added that once a platform is listed, users will have time to withdraw their assets before being blocked.

Back in 2022, the SEC banned local crypto platforms from providing staking and lending services amid a liquidity crisis in the crypto market. In 2023, the SEC banned such companies from using customer assets for lending and investing.

At the same time, the largest crypto exchange Binance received a license from the Ministry of Finance of Thailand, and later helped local law enforcers confiscate $277 million from crypto fraudsters.

Already this year, Thailand’s Ministry of Finance abolished VAT on cryptocurrency trading to further expand the local market for digital assets.

Earlier this year, the Indian authorities blocked the websites of several leading global crypto exchanges for lack of registration with fintech and violation of AML-norms. Later, it became known that Binance would return to the local market after paying the fine.

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