Efforts to combat illegal online activities like money laundering have led the Thai government to decide to prohibit any cryptocurrency exchange that does not possess the required license to operate in the country. The Thai SEC will inform the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society about unauthorized crypto exchanges in Thailand.

After a meeting on April 19, the Technology Crime Prevention and Suppression Committee announced this directive through Thai SEC Secretary-General Pornanong Budsaratragoon. Following the examples of India and the Philippines, Thailand has decided to blacklist unlicensed businesses, particularly offshore exchanges that fail to comply with national laws.

Scrutiny on Unlicensed Exchanges

To minimize the impact on the public, the Thai SEC urges cryptocurrency holders to withdraw their funds from unlicensed exchanges before the ban takes effect. Prospective investors in Thailand are advised to use the SEC Check First app to verify if platforms have the necessary licenses before investing. Notably, Binance remains unregistered and will need to shut down once the ban is implemented.

Furthermore, popular offshore exchanges such as OKX, Kraken, Coinbase, and KuCoin lack the appropriate licenses to operate in Thailand according to government data.

European regulators are contemplating proposals to outlaw non-decentralized protocols. The Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework requires the European Commission to evaluate the decentralized finance (DeFi) market and potentially establish sector-specific regulations by December 30.