Thailand to start taxing overseas income next year, including from crypto

September 19, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Any person who resides in Thailand for up to 180 days, would be subject to personal income tax on foreign assets, including crypto.

Thailand’s Revenue Department is planning to impose personal income tax on the foreign revenues, including those made from crypto trading, of any person who resides in Thailand for more than 180 days.

According to the Sept 19 report from the Bangkok Post, the new rule will take effect on Jan. 1, 2024, with the first tax forms, including overseas income to be delivered in 2025.

Under the previous regulation, only the foreign income, remitted to Thailand in the year of earning, was taxed. The new rule closes this loophole and will oblige an individual to declare any income, earned overseas, even if it wasn't going to be used in the local economy. A Finance Ministry official explained this logic to journalists:

“The principle of tax is that you must pay tax on income you earn from abroad no matter how you earn it and regardless of the tax year in which the money is earned”.

According to other Bangkok Post sources, the policy specifically targets residents trading in foreign stock markets through foreign brokerages, cryptocurrency traders, and Thais with offshore accounts.

In July, Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) obliged digital asset service providers to offer adequate warnings highlighting risks associated with cryptocurrency trading. It has also prohibited any forms of crypto lending services.

However, the trend for tight scrutiny over the crypto industry might change with the recent election of the new prime minister. Real estate tycoon Srettha Thavisin, elected to lead the Thai parliament, participated in a $225 million raise for a crypto-friendly investment management firm XSpring Capital and even issued its own token through XSpring in 2022.

Collect this article as an NFT to preserve this moment in history and show your support for independent journalism in the crypto space.

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September 18, 2023 The Daily Hodl

Second-largest Thai bank creates $100-million AI fund

September 14, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Second-largest Thai bank creates 0-million AI fund

Banks

The fund, named KXVC, will target AI, Web3, and Deep Tech startups with a focus on the Asia-Pacific region.

According to the press release published on Sept. 13, the fund will possess a $100 million investment budget with Krating Poonpol, a Chairman of KBank Business Technology Group, in charge of the enterprise. In Poonpol’s words:

Kasikornbank, or KBank, one of Thailand’s largest private banks, launched a flagship fund to invest in artificial intelligence (AI). The fund, named KXVC, will target AI, Web3, and Deep Tech startups with a focus on the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region.

“KXVC will be a stepping stone for global founders to drive their business expansion in APAC with strong synergy with KBank and our partners.”

More precisely, KXVC is going to invest in consumer-focused AI, cybersecurity, AI/ML tools such as deployment platforms, data annotation and model optimization, and problem-specific AI startups. Within Web3, its investments will aim at Web3 infrastructures, nodes validators, RPC providers, middlewares, modularity technologies, privacy, ZKP, wallets, alternative L1/L2s, shared securities, LsdFi and consumerization of NFTs.

The fund plans to invest in over 30 startups and funds globally with geographic focuses in the United States, European Union, Israel, and APAC.

Kbank is not new when it comes to the digital economy. In 2021, it began experimenting with decentralized finance (DeFi) services as part of its business expansion plan. And back in 2018, the bank joined Visa’s blockchain-based B2B solution for cross-border payment transactions.

Kbank is the second-largest bank in Thailand in assets evaluation. By 2023, it was holding 3.6 trillion Thai Bhat, which is roughly $100 billion.

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Thai authorities arrest five in 3,200-victim, $27M crypto scam

September 11, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Authorities

Victims lost over $27 million worth of Thai bhat after investing in a fraudulent cryptocurrency investment platform.

Authorities in Thailand arrested five foreign nationals linked with a fraudulent cryptocurrency investment platform that fleeced over $27 million from local investors.

According to an initial report from the Bangkok Post, Thailand’s Cyber Crime Investigation (CCIB) Bureau arrested four individuals from China and one from Laos for orchestrating a fraudulent investment scheme that duped more than 3,200 locals.

The CCIB began investing the operation after affected investors came forward in late 2022, claiming that they had lost investments made through bchgloballtd.com with the assistance of the United States Homeland Security Investigations and other international law enforcement agencies.

The five accused were arrested and charged for colluding to commit transnational crime, public fraud and money laundering.

The Office of the Attorney General in Thailand moved to prosecute the suspects in August 2022, before the anti-money laundering office confiscated 585 million baht worth of personal property from the accused.

CCIB spokesperson Kissana Phathanacharoen said that investment schemes continue to cause the most financial damage of scams reported in the country. Victims are said to invest life savings into the schemes or take out finance on homes or property.

Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission issued new requirements in Jan. 2023 for virtual asset service providers in the country aimed at increasing investor protecting and safeguarding user funds held by custody providers.

As a recent Cointelegraph report uncovered, scammers have gone as far as targeting MetaMask users using government-owned website URLs to trick victims and access their crypto wallet holdings.

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Thailand’s next prime minister Srettha Thavisin has crypto history

August 23, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

Sansiri, one of the largest real estate firms in Thailand, once had Srettha Thavisin as CEO. The firm is known for backing crypto projects like XSpring.

Thailand’s parliament on Aug. 22 voted for real estate tycoon Srettha Thavisin to be the country’s next prime minister. Thavisin is best known as former president and CEO of Sansiri, one of the largest real estate developers in Thailand, which also has some cryptocurrency background.

Thavisin, 60, was the only candidate brought to elections by the Pheu Thai Party, receiving 482 votes out of a possible 747 in Thailand’s parliament.

His victory could potentially have some implications for the cryptocurrency industry in Thailand as his family company, Sansiri, was an active investor in the country’s digital asset industry. Thavisin quit as Sansiri CEO in April 2023 amid speculation that he would be named Thailand’s next PM. He also shed his 4.4% stake in Sansiri at the time.

*Former Sansiri CEO Srettha Thavisin. Source: AP News*

In 2021, Sansiri participated in a $225 million raise for a crypto-friendly investment management firm XSpring Capital. Subsequently, XSpring launched a fully integrated cryptocurrency trading platform in 2022. The firm plans to become a top-three company in the crypto exchange market by 2025.

Apart from backing major crypto projects in Thailand, Thavisin’s Sansiri is also known for issuing and distributing its own tokens through XSpring in 2022. Called “SiriHub Token,” the digital asset is part of a real estate-backed initial coin offering (ICO) which offered a total of 240 million tokens to the general public in 2022.

The Pheu Thai Party — which Thavisin joined in November 2022 — also previously proposed distributing some money to Thai citizens in case it wins the elections. The party specifically promised to give the country’s citizens 10,000 Thai baht ($285) in April 2023 and send the amount using digital currency.

As Thavisin’s government is expected to assume office by the end of September, it remains to be seen whether his crypto-related background would impact Thailand’s crypto policies.

Days ahead of the vote, Thavisin took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to stress that he was participating in the elections because he wanted to “improve the country and the economy.” He added:

“My enemies are poverty and the inequality of the people. My goal is the well-being of all Thai people.”

The news comes a few months after Thailand’s cabinet decided to offer tax breaks for corporate income tax and value-added tax for companies that issue investment tokens. Announcing the initiative in March, deputy government spokesman Rachada Dhnadirek said that the government expects investment token offerings to generate 128 billion Thai baht ($3.7 billion) over the next two years.

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Thailand threatens Facebook over crypto scams and other fraudulent ads

August 22, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Ads

Thailand’s digital minister said he would seek a court order to shut Facebook in the country unless it takes action on the alleged scams.

Thailand is planning to seek a court-issued shutdown order against Facebook unless it takes steps to deal with alleged investment and crypto scam ads on its platform.

On Aug. 21, the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society (MDES) stated over 200,000 people had been duped by Facebook ads that touted crypto scams, investing in fake businesses and faked government agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Popular tactics used by the scammers included crypto investment and trading scams, MDES claimed. Some ads also allegedly used images of celebrities and well-known financial figures along with promises of up to 30% daily returns to lure people into the schemes.

MDES Minister Chaiwut Thanakamanusorn said the ministry had been in talks with and sent a letter to the Meta-owned platform over the issue but claimed it's failing to screen advertisers.

*Chaiwut Thanakamanusorn at an Aug. 21 press conference regarding the ministry’s planned court action against Facebook. Source: MDES*

The ministry is currently gathering evidence of the scam ads which it said numbered over 5,300 — at the end of the month, it’s ready to ask a court to shut down Facebook within seven days.

The ministry warned on how such scams typically operate saying consumers should be wary of promises of high and guaranteed returns along with ads using images of well-known figures.

Investments that pressure or give incentives to quickly invest with limited offers should also be approached with caution as well as businesses or platforms with no verifiable information.

Cointelegraph contacted Meta but did not immediately receive a response.

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South Korean Shinhan Bank completes stablecoin remittance pilot with Asian partners

July 18, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

The bank used the Hedera network to settle payments in South Korean, Thai and Taiwanese currencies in real-time in its second stablecoin pilot project.

South Korea’s Shinhan Bank has completed its second proof-of-concept using stablecoins for international remittances. Siam Commercial Bank’s SCB TechX unit and an unnamed Taiwanese financial institution also participated in the project.

The project carried out real-time settlement and foreign exchange integration with the banks’ national currencies on the Hedera network. The project was compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), opening it up to use by a host of other stablecoins.

Shinhan Bank conducted its first proof-of-concept project in November 2021 in conjunction with South Africa’s Standard Bank, although that bank’s identity was also not immediately disclosed.

Shinhan Bank explained at the time that it minted a pool of South Korean won-backed stablecoins, and the partnering bank minted a stablecoin in its local currency. A user was able to buy Shinhan-minted stablecoins and send them to an account at the partner bank. That bank provided the funds in the locally denominated stablecoin, which the user could then exchange.

Byunghee Kim, head of the blockchain division at Shinhan Bank, said, “We are pleased to have demonstrated how the use of Hedera’s EVM-compatible technology helps eliminate intermediaries, reduce costs, and speed up the remittance process."

1/ In a continuation of their work on #DLT-enabled cross-border remittances, @ShinhanBankENG - in collaboration with SCB TechX & other financial institutions - has today announced the successful completion of a #stablecoin remittances PoC pilot on #Hedera.https://t.co/OUAxOfU2U4
— Hedera (@hedera) July 18, 2023

Remittances are noncommercial cross-border payments. They are typically slow, expensive and hard to track. An International Monetary Fund official stated earlier this year that remittance providers collect $45 billion in fees annually.

The use of stablecoins provides an alternative to central bank digital currency (CBDC) in Web3 remittance solutions. There are numerous CBDC cross-border payment projects, including some designed specifically for remittances, but few CBDCs have been launched, so that technology remains tentative. Meanwhile, stablecoin-based remittance solutions are becoming more common, especially in Latin America.

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Thai SEC bans the use of customer crypto assets for lending and investment

July 3, 2023 Coin Telegraph

bitcoin regulation

Investor protection regulations have been under discussion since September 2022 amid the crypto lending crisis that saw firms such as BlockFi and Celsius declare bankruptcy.

Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued new rules for digital asset service providers focused on investor protection.

The new guidelines require digital asset service providers to offer adequate warnings highlighting risks associated with cryptocurrency trading. All platforms must display a message that reads:

“Cryptocurrencies are high risk. Please study and understand the risks of cryptocurrencies thoroughly, because you may lose the entire investment amount.”

The warning message must be clearly visible, and before customers can use the service, the business operator must arrange for the users to give consent and acknowledge the risks.

Apart from a trading risks disclaimer, the new guidelines also prohibit service providers from using customers’ funds for lending or investment.

The Thai SEC has banned crypto lending services, thus prohibiting crypto platforms from offering any form of return on deposited crypto by customers. The SEC’s aim is to increase protection for investors from the risks of lending services. The new regulations are set to come into effect from July 31, 2023.

The discussion around new regulations for investor protection began on Sept. 1, 2022, when the SEC approved the need for security warnings by cryptocurrency business operators to disclose the risks of trading cryptocurrencies. The rules prohibiting digital asset business operators from providing services or supporting deposit-taking and lending services were discussed during meetings on Dec. 1, 2022 and May 11, 2023.

The new investor protection rules come after a massive crypto lending crisis during the 2022 bear market. Several crypto lending firms, which collected billions in customer deposits by promising hefty returns, went bust during the bear market. Leading lending firms, including Celsius and BlockFi, filed for bankruptcy, resulting in investor money getting stuck in bankruptcy proceedings.

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Thailand launches retail CBDC pilot with 2 banks and Singapore payment service

June 12, 2023 Coin Telegraph

CBDC

The project, delayed from last year, will enlist bank employees and nearby businesses for the pilot. Each payment provider has launched its own app.

The Bank of Thailand will launch a retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot project in a regulatory sandbox this month. Three payment providers will take part, according to local media. The project will involve up to 10,000 users and run through August.

Bank of Ayudhya (Krungsri), Siam Commercial Bank and Singapore-based payments service provider 2C2P will partner with the Thai central bank on the project. Each of those organizations has made an app available to selected users that includes a wallet and a QR code scanner.

Krungsri will enlist up to 2,000 staff members to participate in the project, along with about 100 merchants located around the bank’s headquarters. It will expand the project to its Ploenchit branch as well. Krungsri Innovate managing director Sam Tanskul said:

“The bank needs to determine a strategy to differentiate retail CBDC from [its] PromptPay service.”

Siam Commercial Bank’s pilot will operate similarly to Krungsri’s, with staff and neighboring merchants participating.

The pilot was announced in August and was originally scheduled to launch in 2022. The Bank of Thailand has called the project a “pilot to learn” rather than a pilot launch. The central bank has no official plans to launch a CBDC.

Twenty commercial banks in #HongKong, #China, #UAE and #Thailand used #mBridge and #CBDC to conduct payment and foreign exchange payment-versus-payment transactions on behalf of their corporate clients. Read the full report https://t.co/PhTtmQ8Lj4 pic.twitter.com/TE6Dv0dszr
— Digital Pound Foundation (@digitalpoundfdn) October 27, 2022

The Bank of Thailand announced it was developing a wholesale CBDC in 2018. It participated in the Bank for International Settlements’ mBridge cross-border payment project and Project Inthanon-Lion Rock project with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority.

In March, the country waived corporate income tax and value-added tax for companies that issue investment tokens. A government spokesman said Thailand could lose about $1 billion in revenue, but it expected investment tokens to generate $3.7 billion over the next two years.

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Binance and Gulf Innova to launch crypto exchange in Thailand in Q4 2023

May 26, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Binance

Binance and its Thai partner Gulf Innova have secured digital asset operator licenses in Thailand to launch a new crypto exchange.

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance continues expanding its global reach by securing new regulatory approvals in Thailand.

Gulf Binance — a joint crypto venture of Binance and Gulf Energy’s innovation arm Gulf Innova — has received digital asset operator licenses from Thailand’s Ministry of Finance. The licenses enable the firm to operate a crypto exchange regulated by the country’s Securities and Exchange Commission.

Announcing the news on May 26, Binance said Gulf Binance is set to launch a new digital asset exchange in Thailand by Q4 2023.

The new crypto venture will combine Binance’s digital asset expertise with Gulf’s deep understanding of the Thai market. The companies have been closely working together for more than a year to explore the opportunity to launch a local digital asset exchange.

Thai billionaire Sarath Ratanavadi’s Gulf Energy first reached an agreement with Binance to study such an opportunity in January 2023.

“By harnessing Binance’s expertise together with Gulf’s established local presence and network, Gulf Binance aims to showcase the full potential of blockchain technology to meet the needs of Thai users,” Binance’s regional head of Asia, Europe and Mena, Richard Teng, said.

The executive also said Thailand has emerged as a crypto-friendly country, demonstrating a strong commitment to crypto and blockchain.

As previously reported, Gulf Energy is also known for making strategic investments in Binance’s United States-based arm Binance.US. In April 2022, the firm disclosed that it invested in “Series Seed Preferred Stock issued by BAM Trading Services,” which is the operator of Binance.US.

The news comes amid Thai regulators moving to implement a set of regulations to protect cryptocurrency investors. In January 2023, the financial regulator introduced new rules for crypto custody services, requiring all crypto custodians to have a contingency plan in case of unforeseen events.

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