Published
5 years ago on
November 21, 2018
It has been recently confirmed by the governor at the Bank of Thailand that the use of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies won’t be used in the country for at least three years. Veerathai Santiprabhob made the announcement yesterday.
The governor did admit that while cryptocurrency was a success in some countries, it wasn’t as easy as it sounded to be integrated because of the technology behind it and the public's willingness to embrace it.
Santiprabhob included that he didn’t believe that it will be used for at least three to five years. His comments came at a time when other nations are considering their own state-backed crypto assets.
If we look to Sweden for example, they are fast-tracking the release of its state-backed e-Krona. In 2017 it was reported that Sweden’s Riksbank was undertaking research on issuing its own digital currency. Sweden is one nation that can see a drop in the use of fiat cash.
A report published back in July from the EU Parliament called for the introduction of central bank cryptocurrencies to even out the crypto market and that it could be a sort of remedy to address the competition issues in the cryptocurrency market. We will have to wait and see if and when that will happen but during the time, the report stated:
“The arrival of permissioned cryptocurrencies promoted by banks, even by central banks, will reshape the current competition level in the inter-cryptocurrency market, broadening the number of competitors.”
Despite Thailand not issuing its own digital currency, it is looking at them for settling payments among financial institutions. This is according to Santiprabhob who added that he hopes the first implementation of a cryptocurrency within financial institutions will take place during the first quarter of next year.
Back in June, the Securities and Exchange Commission at Thailand introduced regulations on crypto and initial coin offerings (ICOs). The objective of this is to control and regulate the industry and protect traders from unlicensed operators.
Who knows what the impact of the introduction of a crypto asset in Thailand will be if any at all.
What are your thoughts? Let us know what your thoughts are down below in the comments!
