Cryptocurrency in Thailand and Vietnam

Officials within Thailand and Vietnam are now pushing for regulations to be established with regards to ICOS.

Especially as lawmakers in Vietnam are trying to ensure businesses are not able to participate in activity related to cryptocurrencies until there are clear regulations. Thailand officials are also ready to give similar guidance to the public within their country.

In fact, South Asia in general is now seen as a location whereby there is a lot of activity to be found in regards to initiating regulation around cryptocurrencies.

In 2018 Vietnam saw state officials request that businesses suspend any crypto related activity until a regulatory framework is established. This includes activity such as consultancy, issuing of cryptocurrency and brokerage.

They have also issued a warning to potential cryptocurrency investors, using a lack a regulation as a risk factor that needs to be taken into consideration.

Just before this request was made by state officials a deputy director at the Ministry of Justice in Vietnam said that the anonymous nature of cryptocurrency transactions made them potential dangerous and open to criminal activity.

A warning to cryptocurrency investors

Officials in Thailand stated that a recent study on investment capital in ICOs showed that 95% of these ventures will actually fail, but the 5% that didn’t fail were seen to be very profitable. The Thailand Security and Exchange Commission believe that high risk, high failure rate investments such as these need oversight from the Government.

Thailand has recently seen a cryptocurrency exchange named Jibex open its doors within the country. To start with only five cryptocurrencies will be supported; bitcoin, bitcoin cash, ether, Litecoin and ripple, with more expected to be added in the future. A wallet supporting these currencies is also offered by the exchange.

There are many who would hope that it would lead to the country embracing cryptocurrencies in other aspects of the economy and maybe may even help bring about change in gambling legislation.

As it is well known that the crypto world makes transactions secure and fast, whilst being cost effective; which may help alleviate concerns officials may have with gaming. This would be great news for SBOBET and other popular online gaming sites, but we can only wait and see what the future holds.

Vietnam has seen the introduction of the Kenniex cryptocurrency exchange, in Ho Chi Minh City and is the first live cryptocurrency exchange in the country. Bitcoin can be converted into VND or VND into bitcoin via the exchange.

2013 saw the Central Bank of Thailand declare that Bitcoin was illegal, however this was then reversed in 2014, but buying Bitcoin within Thailand and  trading it internationally was still illegal.

A law was recently put into place in Thailand to control and regulate cryptocurrency transactions and initial coin offerings, it comes with jail terms and heavy fines in an attempt to regulate cryptocurrency trading and prevent illegal activity.

A royal decree has been enacted which insists that cryptocurrencies and digital tokens are digital assets and the Thailand Securities and Exchange Commission will now be in charge of overseeing and regulating crypto transactions moving forwards.

Vietnam saw their government ban Bitcoin in 2014 but now want to streamline and monitor the industry, enabling them to tax and monitor it.

Last year they issued a decree that determined digital currency is not a valid or legal means of payment and that anyone violating this could face hefty fines. The government have regularly issued warnings on the risks associated with digital currencies, which actually led to a ban on them.