Thailand: One of Asia’s biggest adopters now barred from using crypto as payment

ambcrypto.com:

Within the Asian market, the crypto market grew drastically and showcased a unique insight. In just a year, the market saw a 706% increase. Thus, it represented 14% of all crypto transactions around the world, and Thailand, indeed, made headlines. 

Chainalysis‘ report indicated that the crypto market of Central and Southern Asia and Oceania, CSAO, received as much as $572 billion in just a year, from July 2020 to June 2021. More than 1 in 10 working-age internet users owned some form of “crypto”. This figure rose to more than 2 in 10 in Thailand.

Source: Datareportal.com

Thai users held more than $3 billion worth of cryptocurrencies this year. A massive increase compared to just a few years ago. Infact, in 2021, transaction volume increased by about 600% from November 2020 to April 2021.

Indeed, the rising crypto adoption met a major obstacle here in the region. From 1 April, 2022 Thailand would prohibit the usage of digital assets as a means of payment for goods and services.

According to a report by Bloomberg on 23 March, Thailand regulatory board issued rules to ban digital assets for payment of goods and services. This new development will come into play at the start of next month. In a joint press release, the Thailand Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Bank of Thailand (BOT) said:

“Business operators — including crypto exchanges — must not provide such payment services and are barred from acting in a manner that promotes digital assets to pay for goods or services. However, the new regulation won’t affect trading or investments in digital assets.”

Until the end of April, companies and local businesses had to comply with the new rules. The development pricing units other than the Thai baht would increase the