Thai stock exchange supervisor makes an unexpected announcement

The Thai Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) made an unexpected announcement on February 28th. The regulator will only permit a number of cryptocurrencies with which Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) may be held. In addition, it imposed a number of other restrictions.

The Thai SEC comes with a list of permitted cryptocurrencies. Only the cryptos on this list may be used for ICOs and as a basis for trading pairs for trading on crypto exchanges.

The current cryptos are bitcoin (BTC), ethereum (ETH), Ripple’s XRP and stellar (XLM). This means that all other altcoins may not be used for ICOs, among other things.

The announcement seems to come from nowhere. So even in the official announcement of the Thai SEC is read:

In any case, the list update has no impact on investors or digital asset companies, because up to now no ICO has been held where the aforementioned digital currency was used. In addition, the now operational digital exchanges have never used BCH, ETC or LTC as the basis for trading pairs.

Many therefore wonder why the Thai SEC took the trouble to implement these restrictions. Whether there is a specific reason behind it, we will probably find out in the coming period.

The political landscape in Thailand is very uneasy since the military coup in 2006. Then the army took over the leadership of Thaksin Shinawatra. Thaksin is still very popular in Thailand today, with the interesting fact that he is also a bitcoiner himself. He said in 2017: “the internet is called the World Wide Web of Information, but Blockchain is the World Wide Ledgers of Value.”

If Thaksin’s party wins during the upcoming elections, we can possibly expect a more positive attitude from the country towards cryptocurrency. The Thai royal family, however, is not a fan of Thaksin and tries to hinder him in everything. Whether we will ever see Thaksin in power again in Thailand is therefore still the question.