Thailand Emergency Decree on Digital Asset Businesses B.E. 2561 (2018)

The decree defines digital assets as cryptocurrencies and digital tokens. Cryptocurrencies are electronic data units used as a medium of exchange for goods, services, rights, or exchanges between digital assets. Digital tokens specify rights to participate in an investment project or business, or rights to acquire specific goods, services, or other rights under an issuer-holder agreement.

The decree originally categorized digital asset businesses as exchanges, brokers, dealers, and other digital-asset-related businesses prescribed by the Minister of Finance on the SEC’s recommendation. Thailand’s SEC has since described six supervised operator types: exchange, broker, dealer, fund manager, advisory service provider, and custodial wallet provider.

Public offerings of newly issued digital tokens generally require an eligible juristic-person issuer, SEC Office approval, registration statement and draft prospectus filing, and use of an approved digital token portal service provider. Token offerors also have ongoing reporting duties for business results, financial condition, and holder-impacting information.

• Business licensing: A digital asset business operator must obtain a license from the Minister of Finance on the SEC’s recommendation.
• Operating standards: SEC rules may address capital, client-asset safety, cybersecurity, accounting, audit, KYC, customer due diligence, AML, and terrorism-financing controls.
• Client assets: Operators keeping client assets must maintain separate client accounts, segregate client assets, and avoid using them for other purposes.
• AML status: Digital asset business operators and digital token portal service providers are treated as financial institutions under Thailand’s AML law.
• Unfair trading: The decree includes market-conduct provisions for false statements, inside information, market manipulation, and related exchange conduct.

The Emergency Decree on Digital Asset Businesses (No. 2) B.E. 2568 (2025) expanded the licensing perimeter to include a digital asset business operator that operates outside Thailand but provides services to persons within Thailand, unless the SEC specifies an exception. Relevant characteristics include Thai-language displays, “.th” or Thai-language domains, Thai-baht payments or Thai accounts, Thai-law clauses, search-engine access targeting users in Thailand, local offices, local entities, or local support personnel.

The SEC stated that the 2025 amendments took effect on April 13, 2025 and allow Thai authorities to more quickly restrict unlicensed foreign digital asset platforms soliciting or advertising services to investors in Thailand.

Editors should classify the decree as Thailand’s in-force digital asset business, token issuance, custody, AML, and market-conduct framework. The English SEC translation is useful for reference, but it notes that only the original Thai text has legal force.