Thailand will restrict the use of digital assets as a form of payment for goods and services as of April 1, 2022. According to a Bloomberg storey from March 23, Thailand’s regulatory body enacted guidelines prohibiting the use of digital assets to pay for goods and services. This new development will take effect at the beginning of next month. The Thailand Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Bank of Thailand (BOT) issued a joint news release saying:
The year 2022 has been significant for crypto market as it accounted for 14% of all crypto transactions worldwide. According to Chainalysis, the Central and Southern Asia and Oceania (CSAO) crypto market received $572 billion in just a year, from July 2020 to June 2021. More than one out of every ten working-age internet users have some type of “crypto” in their possession. In Thailand, this number has risen to more than 2 out of 10 people.
The Thai consumers had more than $3 billion in cryptocurrency and the transaction volume surged by almost 600 percent from November 2020 to April 2021,
Companies and local businesses had until the end of April to comply with the new laws. The cost of economic operations would rise if development price units other than the Thai baht were used.
The region’s growing crypto acceptance has run across a huge stumbling block. Thailand will outlaw the use of digital assets as a form of payment for goods and services as of April 1st. At the same time, it lowered the transmission effectiveness of the monetary policy.
Operators of cryptocurrency shall stop advertising, soliciting, or building a system to promote payment of the currency. Rather, they must caution clients against using digital assets to make payments. The new regulations even threatened to delete accounts if they were discovered to be in violation of the rules.
This action reflects authorities’ concerns about the risks that digital assets represent. It has the potential to have an impact on the country’s financial stability and overall economy.