Thailand Reveals New ICO Regulations

If you have been following the crypto news in Thailand, you will definitely remember that in May 2018, the authorities of this country banned any form of Initial Coin Offering in the country. The decision taken at that time waived off the 7% VAT (Value Added Tax) on all cryptocurrency transactions. This new ICO regulations that have been signed by the relevant authorities reverse the ban that was previously placed on these projects. Although the ban was reversed, strict stipulations and conditions that must be met by all companies seeking to carry out ICO in the future have been put in place. According to the decree that was issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission, each company that seeks to carry out an ICO project must, first of all, identify what type of token they are issuing, also they would have to provide certain pertinent or important Investment information before the would be able to carry out these projects.

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This new ICO regulation that was released by the SEC mandated that all companies or platforms that are carrying out ICO' projects oversee their token sales for about one year, and they must have a minimum base of about 5 million Baht which is equivalent of $157,000. The decree went further to state that each token sales must be offered to investors with large net worth as well as institutional investors. It went further to state that each investment per person should not be more than 300,000 Baht and for an ICO project about 70% value should be offered.

The May 2018 regulations that were issued by the SEC states that cryptocurrencies should be tagged as "digital assets". The new regulation saw the SEC in Thailand approve seven coins to be used as trading pairs. The digital tokens include; Bitcoin, Ethereum Classic, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Stellar, Ripple and Litecoin. According to the official statement that was released by the Thai Securities Commission, these cryptocurrencies listed above were chosen because of their popularity, liquidity and credibility among other necessary parameters. After the announcement was made, about ten companies would have to apply for the license to operate. Out of the ten companies, five are cryptocurrency exchanges while they other five are broker firms. According to the commission, all crypto exchanges must apply for a license on or before August 14, 2018.

This new regulation, also listed certain license fees that these companies seeking to operate in the country would have to pay. The Finance Minister of the country also stated that all cryptocurrency exchanges in the country must have to be registered before they can begin operating in the country. The Minister went further to state that they have to pay an upfront fee of 5 million Baht before they can begin operations. This upfront fee that has been mandated covers the distribution of tokens as well as all cryptocurrency operations in the country.

While this new decision favors cryptocurrencies in a way, the country stands to gain also from the license fees each company seeking to operate would have to pay.