Is Thailand embracing cryptocurrency? Latest move suggests they are at least for now

Thailand is a tough little country to figure out sometimes but just like any other country they are eager to attempt to lure in investors to the Kingdom. They have been a bit strange about cryptocurrency here in the past even just since I have been here. Initially when cypto and most notably BTC burst into the public conversation the Thai government was willing to accommodate it fully and even allowed BTC point of sale systems to be legally put in place. Very few people understood how any of this works to actually implement it but the businesses that did were able to lure in mostly tourists that were interested in spending money this way. A few exchanges popped up in Thailand as well where it made it easy for people to deposit money into these exchanges directly from their Thai fiat banks.

Then a few years later the regulations started to pile on, as things tend to with governments, and all of these small Thailand-based exchanges abruptly shut down. In March of 2022 the Thai government banned all crypto being used as a method of purchasing goods or services of any sort and just like everywhere else in the world where the media is used to lie to the public, the officials claimed that this move was done in order to protect the customers from "hacking" and losing their funds.

While it remained unclear (as things tend) as to whether a person was allowed to get involved in crypto at all in Thailand even as an investment, the people who were going to do this didn't need the permission from the government to make it happen. Just like anywhere else in the world except for maybe China, there are many on and off-roads for crypto in Thailand. It was just disappointing that the country didn't embrace it simply because they don't understand it.

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Well the news broke this week that Thailand announced that not only will the Kingdom allow investing in the country via crypto assets, but they are going to "embrace it." The translation of the press release was that they were "seeking to stimulate the economy via investment tokens" and while that doesn't mean a great deal it appears as though they are going to be perfectly find with people putting money into the country that was obtained via crypto earnings. They plan to implement a 15% tax on these earnings and this will introduce a whole different world of problems since much of the time people who have made money off of crypto investments don't actually want to disclose their earnings. I know that I don't personally know anyone that is interested in that. I suppose they could exist and someone with huge amounts of it... one of those "Bitcoin millionaires" that we hear about, would be ok with a 15% drop if it meant they could then legally spend it on major purchases in the country.

Also, this annoucement appears to green-light personal investment in exchanges and is encouraging people to report their earnings and even turn it back into fiat if they wish, but again it will be at a 15% rate.

Is this unreasonably high? Well, I think so but it kind of depends on the situation and the volume. If someone were "cashing out" millions of dollars worth of the stuff they would certainly be better off doing it here than say, in the United States where the government would likely put you in jail just for having it and if not, they would confiscate around half of it in taxation. So this could encourage some higher-level individuals to actually bring their money here if they are interested in cashing out.

This doesn't apply to most people of course, but it is nice to see the government kind of embrace the fact that crypto is here to stay and criminalizing it and fighting it is a lost cause. However, if people do their research they will likely notice that Thailand frequently changes their minds on things and as far as crypto is concerned they have already "changed their minds" several times. Just like anywhere else in the world, the Thai Banking system in a very powerful group that doesn't like competition so at the drop of a hat this legislation could all change. This is what they are currently doing with the novel decision to legalize recreational use of marijuana after a mere 18 months or so.

Regardless of how this is taken by serious investors around the world it is nice to see countries capitulating and admitting that "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em."