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- The Bank of Thailand forbids local banks and businesses from adopting cryptocurrency, yet the tourist ministry continues to court crypto whales
- According to a Bangkok Post story, the new round of central bank suppression of digital assets comes at a time when commercial banks are investing in local cryptocurrency exchanges
- If foreign currencies are extensively utilized, it will harm the central bank’s ability to oversee the economy, BoT senior director Sakkapop Panyanukul warned firms last week
The Bank of Thailand forbids local banks and businesses from adopting cryptocurrency, yet the tourist ministry continues to court crypto whales. The Bank of Thailand has declared that commercial banks should not be directly involved in crypto asset trading. On Dec. 7, senior director Chayawadee Chai-Anant of the central bank issued an edict citing concerns linked with high price volatility. They don’t want banks directly participating in digital asset trading because banks are for customer deposits and the general public, and there is danger.
According to a Bangkok Post story, the new round of central bank suppression of digital assets comes at a time when commercial banks are investing in local cryptocurrency exchanges. In early November, Thailand’s oldest bank, Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) revealed that it was acquiring a 51 percent share in Bitkub, the country’s largest crypto exchange. In late August, the Zipmex cryptocurrency exchange received $1.3 billion in funding from the Bank of Ayudhya, the country’s fifth-largest lender. Despite their growing popularity among individuals, businesses, and institutions in Thailand, the Bank of Thailand has taken a harsher stance against digital assets.
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If foreign currencies are extensively utilized, it will harm the central bank’s ability to oversee the economy, BoT senior director Sakkapop Panyanukul warned firms last week. He referred to tokens that were not backed by assets as blank coins. The usage of cryptocurrencies to pay for goods and services has also raised concerns for the central bank. In a similar analysis published on Dec. 8, Chai-Anant stated that digital assets are associated with high price volatility and dangers of cyber theft, personal data leakage, and money laundering, which might be harmful to merchants and consumers. Such concerns could undermine payment system stability, financial stability, and consumer protection if digital assets become widely employed as a means of payment for goods and services.
The Bank of Thailand’s warnings came barely a fortnight after the Kingdom’s tourist ministry stepped up its attempts to entice cryptocurrency millionaires to visit the nation. Thailand’s Tourism Authority has labeled the country crypto-friendly, but central bankers evidently do not want it to be too friendly.
Thailand’s economy is primarily reliant on tourism, which has been severely harmed by the outbreak. Despite efforts to entice crypto nomads and the like to a country where the central bank forbids them from using digital currency, much of the Kingdom remains in lockdown, with very few arrivals at the time of writing.
Andrew is a blockchain developer who developed his interest in cryptocurrencies while pursuing his post-graduation major in blockchain development. He is a keen observer of details and shares his passion for writing, along with coding. His backend knowledge about blockchain helps him give a unique perspective to his writing skills, and a reliable craft at explaining the concepts such as blockchain programming, languages and token minting. He also frequently shares technical details and performance indicators of ICOs and IDOs.
