In the dawn of recent developments, Thailand regulators and banks seem to be turning against the privately owned crypto exchanges operating within the Kingdom. Thai Digital Asset Exchange (TDAX) becomes the first to postpone registration and trading of new ICOs The reason behind this postpone was further revealed that they exchange are waiting to get some sort of green light for a clearer regulatory framework from the Securities and Exchange Commission.
This move comes just days after Bangkok Bank one of the country’s leading banks temporarily halted transactions which involved any sort of trade with TDAX. They also so happen to be one of the first financial institutions in Thailand to take such a major step. They further justified their actions by revealing that the exchange is not in compliance with its business purpose for which the privately owned Thai crypto had agreed and registered with the Commerce Ministry for. , they were still waiting for the licenses to be granted. This bold decision taken by the bank to terminate the company’s trading account comes just a couple of weeks after the central bank issued a direct statement which sends a clear warning for prohibiting financial institutions from entertaining any kind of transactions whatsoever related to the crypto space.
However, The founder and CEO of the exchange Poramin Insom wasn’t so intimidated by this fiasco as the account closure had not affected customers or trading:
Also, it hasn’t seemed to have affected the Daily trading value as the market continues to remain normal, driven by demand from investors for digital currencies, investors are still able to conduct transactions with the other top three banks
Another shocking development which incurred was the announcement from TDAX, in which they confirmed that they will be halting the ICO registration and trading momentarily and will eagerly wait for ICO regulatory framework to be announced by the SEC
The company recently completed an ICO for 100 million JFin tokens for J Ventures, a subsidiary of Stock Exchange of Thailand-listed Jay Mart Plc, at 6.60 baht per token. This could have been a matter of great concern for them hadn’t Poramin gone public and announce:”JFin coin will not be affected, as this ICO was fully subscribed to on Feb 16, while the first trading day will be held on April 2”. This announcement was a breath of relief for each JFin investor
The much-awaited regulatory framework is predicted to be released by the SEC on March 8th, with a fintech bill to be followed. The ICO regulations are being drafted with the main intention of supervising the online cryptocurrency exchanges, It will be mandatory for all exchanges to register themselves with the SEC. The rush to regulate are due to growing concerns that the stock market would be affected if startups decide to raise funds from foreign exchanges.
Once the regulatory framework is finalized and officially announced, more cryptocurrency exchanges are expected to launch within the province, which, along with Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Singapore, continue to show their support for cryptos. As of now only two private crypto exchanges in Thailand continue to dominate as per stats from Coinmarketcap: TDAX, which handles a daily trade volume of $570k, and the larger volume BX, which handles $6.5 million per day.