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The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for Thailand has released a new set of rules for cryptocurrency and digital asset firms. The regulation is focused on bolstering user and investor protection.
The legal infrastructure now requires any service providers offering crypto and digital asset products to issue adequate warnings that point out the risks involved in cryptocurrency trading. All platforms offering crypto services must display a message clearly on their platforms highlighting the importance of understanding the industry and market:
“Cryptocurrencies are high risk. Please study and understand the risks of cryptocurrencies thoroughly, because you may lose the entire investment amount.”
Cryptocurrency lending in Thailand prohibited
The new guidelines also prohibits certain services in the industry, restricting services from using their investors’ funds for lending or investment purposes. Furthermore, the SEC in the country has banned cryptocurrency lending services to operate, as well as banning platforms from offering return on investments and any earning programmes with cryptocurrency. The aim behind the regulation is to increase customer protection against the risks involved in lending services in the industry.
The new regulations will come into effect at the end of July, after the discussions regarding the need for investor protection began in September 2022. These guidelines comes into play after a significant lending crisis last year amidst an industry-wide bear market. Over the course of the year, crypto lending platforms crashed and declared bankruptcy as a result of liquidity issues from the bear market, leading to the loss of massive amounts of investor funds.
The SEC kickstarted the initiative to protect investors in the digital landscape by approving the requirement that cryptocurrency businesses display warnings about crypto trading risks. The recent rules that restrict cryptocurrency lending and deposit-taking services were initially discussed at the beginning of December 2022 and then readdressed in the middle of May 2023.