Skip to main content

Thailand to target DeFi in latest regulatory clampdown

A new DeFi yield farming platform in Thailand has rattled regulators.

In their latest effort to regulate the cryptocurrency industry, Thailand’s financial regulators have turned their sights towards decentralized finance, or DeFi.

According to a June 1 report from Bangkok Post, Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has announced that any activities related to DeFi may require a license from the financial regulator in the near future. The SEC specifically stated it will target DeFi protocols that issue tokens.

The latest regulatory push comes after the launch of the native token for Thai DeFi protocol, Tuktuk Finance, on the smart contract platform operated by popular local crypto exchange Bitkub on Sunday.

The report noted that prices had skyrocketed to “several hundred dollars” before collapsing to $1 within just a few minutes. According to the platform’s official website, the protocol has attracted a total value locked, or TVL, of $18 million, with the TUK token last trading at $1.93 to give the project a market cap of $7.1 million.

It is the first time that the SEC has specifically targeted DeFi, with the regulator stating:

“The issuance of digital tokens must be authorised and overseen by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the issuer is required to disclose information and offer the coins through the token portals licensed under the Digital Asset Decree.”

CEO of Ava Advisor, an investment robo-advisor app, Niran Pravithana, commented that the announcement is reasonable as there are many fraudulent tokens issued and criminals can hide in messenger applications such as Telegram and manipulate the token prices.

Centralized banks are among those that have embraced DeFi in Thailand, with the Siam Commercial Bank announcing a $50 million investment fund in February, and Kbank experimenting with DeFi services as part of its business expansion plan in April.

As reported by Cointelegraph in April, crypto adoption in Thailand has been booming with an increase of almost 600% since November. DeFi has also grown in popularity, with The Defiant recently reporting that the country ranked second worldwide by search traffic for the keyword “decentralized finance” over the past year.

Regulators in the kingdom responded in May, unveiling plans to curb new crypto exchange account creation with stringent in-person KYC requirements beginning in July. The measure will also prevent foreign investors from accessing Thai exchanges as they are unable to secure local ID cards.



from https://ift.tt/34BmK1c
https://ift.tt/3uH11zg
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Any questions, Please.

Popular posts from this blog

Coinbase reportedly hits pre-IPO valuation of $100 billion in private auction

The major exchange is inching closer to a public offering. Prominent Bitcoin ( BTC ) and cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase could be headed for an IPO valuation of $100 billion, after shares reportedly sold for up to $375 each in a private auction. Shares in Coinbase Global Inc. reportedly traded for a price between $350 and $375 per unit on the Nasdaq private auction market last week, giving the company a pre-IPO valuation of between $90–$100 billion, according to a report by Bloomberg. Trading reportedly ended with the share price at $350. A Coinbase series E funding round in 2018 first saw the stock valued at a potential $8 billion. That valuation increased as shares were then privately traded at a price of $200 on a private forum created by Coinbase in January. The company was deemed to hold a valuation of roughly $50 billion at the time. The price of privately traded shares is partly used to set a reference price for the stock when companies finally go public on the Nasdaq pla...
Post a Comment
Read more

Korean crypto ‘Jedi Master’ plans to launch second VC blockchain fund

Blockchain VC investment firm Hashed is seeking $173 million for a second fund. One of South Korea’s leading blockchain evangelists is embarking on another huge blockchain fundraise following the success of his first. Simon Seojoon Kim is planning to raise $173 million for a second blockchain fund following the success of the initial one which netted $120 million from investors in December 2020 . Specifics regarding the new fund and its potential investors are thin on the ground however. Kim, dubbed “the Jedi Master of cryptocurrency” by Sean Park, a senior partner at Hong Kong-based Boston Consulting Group, co-founded the blockchain and crypto venture capital firm Hashed in 2018. The firm invests in crypto startups to enable them to grow through staff expansion, partnerships and marketing. It has attracted big-name financiers such as Naver, South Korea’s third-largest company by market value, which invested $12 million in the first Hashed blockchain fund. The Seoul-based compan...
Post a Comment
Read more

Chinese banks tell staff to recruit up to 300 new digital yuan users each

Six of China’s top banks have tasked their employees with promoting digital yuan wallets to between 200 to 300 people a year. Chinese banks have begun a hard sell of digital yuan wallets, asking staff to recruit hundreds of new users each year. According to a translation of a June 6 article from Shenlian Caijing, employees of top banks such as the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and the Bank of Communications, along with four other state-owned banks, have been instructed to promote digital yuan wallets to an average of 200 to 300 people a year. To entice new users, employees are able to offer an odd variety of small gifts, such as “laundry detergent, data cables, card holders, Chinese knots, umbrellas, and tissues.” The banks have included the task of promoting the central bank digital currency (CBDC) on employee evaluations, with the number of CBDC wallet recruits determining each branch's end of year bonuses. Essentially the banks have deployed an incentive scheme ...
Post a Comment
Read more