Thai authorities have announced their plans to block unlicensed cryptocurrency exchanges in order to combat money laundering and other online crimes. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of Thailand will be submitting a list of these unlicensed exchanges to the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society. This decision was made following the recent actions taken by India and the Philippines, who have banned offshore exchanges that do not comply with local regulations. To minimize the impact on the public, the Thai SEC is urging crypto investors to withdraw their funds from unregistered platforms before the ban takes effect. The SEC has also developed an application called SEC Check First, which allows investors to check the license registrations of platforms before making any investments. Notably, popular offshore exchanges like Binance, Coinbase, KuCoin, Kraken, and OKX are not operating legally in Thailand. In Europe, regulatory pressure may lead to a ban on non-decentralized protocols, as the European Commission is required to evaluate the decentralized finance (DeFi) market and the feasibility of specific regulations for the sector by the end of the year. This could potentially impact DeFi interfaces, such as decentralized exchanges, and necessitate licensing requirements.
Thailand to Restrict Unlicensed Crypto Exchanges in Order to Tackle Online Criminal Activities