Thailand’s Latest Move For Bitcoin

According to new reports, authorities in Thailand are set to totally change the landscape for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin within their own economy. Before we continue, let’s remind ourselves about Thailand's situation. Thailand is situated within a cryptocurrency hotspot. Generally speaking, Asia is fast becoming a thriving hub for cryptocurrencies, with countries like Japan recently rolling out very pro cryptocurrency regulations, therefore Thailand’s authorities are under some pressure to ensure that they too stay on top of the crypto industry.

Reports suggest that in their latest move, Thai authorities will be bringing cryptocurrency like Bitcoin and Ethereum under the countries current anti money laundering laws, laws that currently only affect FIAT currencies in the area. The authorities have been quick to point out that they do not believe there is an issue with money laundering in cryptocurrency at the moment, these laws will only come into place to protect the future of cryptocurrency, because the authorities can see how money laundering could occur within the cryptosphere. 

We all know that money laundering takes place on the blockchain, so this move to regulate should be seen as a good thing. According to Coindesk:

“Police Major General Preecha Charoensahayanon, secretary-general of the Anti-Money Laundering Office (Amlo), said he believes that, while currently not an issue, cryptocurrency will be a tool of new money laundering. Preecha said that Amlo currently does not receive complaints around money laundering involving cryptocurrencies.”

In the future, however, the authorities do believe that Amlo will begin to receive complaints about cryptocurrencies as criminals in the area start to become more tech savvy. The idea of this move is to both futureproof crypto in Thailand and to future proof authorities such as the police and Amlo.

“The secretary-general argued that criminals will increasingly turn to digital assets to conceal their ill-gotten proceeds. To prepare for this shift, he told the Bangkok Post he plans to alter the country’s laws to bring cryptos into the AML regime, starting with the Anti-Money Laundering Act. Preecha indicated would add a rule requiring cryptocurrency exchange platforms to report activities to the Amlo, adding that such information is crucial to track laundered money over the internet.”

These laws will be implemented at an exchange level, meaning that these changes will not directly impact casual cryptocurrency users in Thailand, instead, it will be down to exchanges and wallets to ensure that suspicious activities are flagged and followed up. Many do believe that this sort of regulation challenges decentralisation, but we have to ask if that’s really a bad thing for a move that overall, promises to really futureproof cryptocurrency and it’s adoption across Asia.