Study: Switzerland Has ‘the Most Profitable Bitcoin Traders’ Worldwide, While France ‘Is the Best Bitcoin Trading Nation’

April 20, 2022 Bitcoin.com

Gulf Energy pursues joint venture with Binance, invests in BNB

April 18, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Binance

The Bangkok-based holding company has identified digital infrastructure and “digital-asset related initiatives” as priority areas.

Thailand-based Gulf Energy has made strategic investments in cryptocurrency exchange Binance US and signaled its pursuit of a joint venture with the global Binance exchange as part of a targeted effort to gain exposure to the digital asset market.

Gulf Energy disclosed in a regulatory filing on April 18 that it invested in “Series Seed Preferred Stock issued by BAM Trading Services Inc.,” which is the operator of Binance US. The investment in Binance US gives Gulf Energy exposure to “one of the fastest user scale-up exchanges in the world” well ahead of the exchange’s planned initial public offering, the company said.

Changpeng Zhao, who runs Binance’s global cryptocurrency exchange, confirmed in July 2021 that Binance US was exploring pathways for a public offering.

In a separate filing on Monday, Gulf Energy disclosed that it is pursuing a “joint venture” with Binance to operate a cryptocurrency exchange in Thailand. Once the joint venture is established, the newly formed entity will apply for digital asset licenses with the appropriate authorities. Gulf Energy’s filing also disclosed investments in Binance Coin (BNB), which is the native crypto asset of the Binance ecosystem.

The collaboration between Gulf Energy and Binance has been in the making for several months now as the cryptocurrency exchange sought to re-establish operations in the Southeast Asian country. In July 2021, Thailand’s securities regulator accused Binance of operating a digital asset business illegally in the country. Binance was the subject of regulatory scrutiny from several other jurisdictions as well, including Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Cayman Islands and the Canadian province of Ontario.

Thailand makes another anti-crypto move citing investor protection. https://t.co/yOqhsa0wqR
— Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) March 23, 2022

While nascent, Thailand’s crypto industry is beginning to crystalize as lawmakers seek to provide more regulatory clarity on the asset class. Recently, the Thai Revenue Department scrapped a planned 15% tax on crypto capital gains amid regulatory backlash.

Thailand Adopts Rules Restricting Cryptocurrency Payments From April

March 23, 2022 Bitcoin.com

Thailand’s SEC to Ban Crypto as a Method of Payment

March 23, 2022 The Crypto Briefing

Thailand SEC bans crypto payments, seeks disclosure of system failure from exchanges

March 23, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Ban

Since Dec. 2021, the government of Thailand has been working on preparing a new regulatory framework by defining “red lines” for the crypto industry.

In an ongoing effort to carve out a regulated crypto market for the general public, the Thailand Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced a ban on the use of cryptocurrencies for payments. Parallelly, the Commission proposed a new rule that demands disclosure of service quality and IT usage information from crypto businesses including brokers, exchanges and dealers.

According to the notice issued by the Thai SEC, businesses in the region have been advised against accepting crypto payments from April 2022 after discussing its implications with the Bank of Thailand (BOT).

The joint study conducted by the BOT and SEC concluded that:

“[Crypto payments] may affect the stability of the financial system and overall economic system including risks to people and businesses.”

Some of these risks highlighted by the SEC include loss of value caused by price volatility, cyber theft, money laundering and personal data leakage. Once implemented, businesses in Thailand will be barred from — advertising accepting crypto payments and establishing systems, tools and wallets to facilitate crypto transactions.

Businesses found in noncompliance with the new crypto laws will be subject to legal actions including temporary suspension or cancellation of the services:

“However, the BOT and the SEC, as well as other government agencies, recognize the benefits of technologies behind digital assets such as blockchain and value and support the use of technology to further innovation.”

Moreover, the Thai SEC proposal aims to further ensure investor security by gauging the quality of the services delivered by the crypto businesses. According to a rough translation, the SEC’s proposes digital asset operators to:

“Prepare and deliver [service quality and system capacity utilization reports] to the SEC office on a monthly basis within the 5th day of the following month.”

In addition to sending monthly reports to the Thai SEC, the proposal also directs crypto businesses to disclose the reports on their official website within the same timeline.

A graph shared by the SEC further highlighted various complaints received over the past 12 months related to system failure, services that do not meet the desired conditions, shopping and others. Based on the data, Thai investors faced the highest problems related to shopping, which might be one of the main reasons for the crypto payments ban.

As Cointelegraph previously reported back in Dec 2021, the government of Thailand confirmed working on preparing a new regulatory framework by defining “red lines” for the crypto industry.

In the first week of March, the finance ministry of Thailand had reportedly eased up crypto tax regulations in an effort to promote digital asset investments.

According to a Cointelegraph report on the matter, the new tax policy exempts crypto traders from the 7% value-added tax (VAT) when trading on authorized exchanges. In addition, the revised tax policy will also allow traders to offset their annual losses against gains for their crypto investment across multiple digital assets.

Here’s how Asian countries deal with crypto sanctions against Russia

March 14, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

Global regulators continue asking crypto exchanges to comply with sanctions against Russia as the country itself has no legal crypto trading platforms.

Amid the United States and the European Union taking measures to prevent Russia from using cryptocurrencies to potentially evade sanctions, some countries in Asia have also been moving to respond to the situation.

Japan to fine crypto exchanges for violating sanctions

Japan became the latest country in Asia to call cryptocurrency firms to comply with sanctions against Russia, requesting on Monday that they not process crypto transactions involving sanctioned individuals or entities in Russia and Belarus.

The Japanese Financial Services Agency (FSA) and the Ministry of Finance issued a joint statement on sanctions against Russia, stressing that crypto is part of the restrictions and any crypto assets identified to be related to sanctions should be frozen.

The FSA reportedly said that any unauthorized transactions under sanctions, including transfers of cryptocurrencies or nonfungible tokens (NFT), are subject to major penalties like imprisonment of up to three years or a 1 million yen ($8,500) fine.

The latest sanction alert from the Japanese government came shortly after the European Union, the United States and the G7 nations announced new actions targeting Russia’s economy and wealthy individuals linked to potential attempts to circumvent sanctions using crypto.

Singapore bans fundraising in crypto for Russia

Other Asian countries like Singapore have also been moving to comply with sanctions against Russia. Singapore over the last week reportedly banned all local financial institutions from conducting transactions with sanctioned Russian banks as well as facilitating fundraising for the Russian government and related entities, with sanctions covering cryptocurrency transactions, nonfungible tokens and other digital assets.

Executives at some crypto businesses like the crypto exchange Luno, reportedly suggested that most crypto businesses in Singapore were unlikely to have direct business relationships with Russia-based individuals or entities. ADDX, a crypto-enabled private market exchange in Singapore, also said that the fund has not been impacted by sanctions on Russia.

“We perform Know Your Customer and Anti-Money Laundering checks on all our investors, and we, therefore, do not handle any anonymous transactions,” ADDX CEO Oi-Yee Choo said.

Major crypto exchanges in South Korea block Russian IP addresses

Previously, South Korea had also joined global sanctions against Russia, with several local cryptocurrency exchanges blocking IP addresses or Russian users.

According to a report by local news agency Yonhap, major South Korean exchanges including Upbit blocked withdrawals from Russia-linked IP addresses as of March 3. Other local crypto exchanges like Gopax, Bithumb and Korbit also restricted access to platform accounts from Russian IP addresses.

While some countries are moving to restrict crypto transactions due to links with apotential evasion of sanctions, other governments reportedly turn to cryptocurrencies as they appear to be one of few options for Russians to pay for services abroad amid massive global sanctions.

Thai association proposes to allow Russians to pay in crypto as other payment methods are blocked

On March 8, Phuket Tourist Association President Bhummikitti Ruktaengam reportedly said that the group was in talks with the Bank of Thailand about potentially adopting cryptocurrency as an alternative payment option for Russian tourists who had gotten stuck in the country due to the sanctions.

Previously, Russians were unable to use their Mastercard and Visa debit and credit cards abroad because the payment giants decided to cut support to all Russians as part of the sanctions.

“Cryptocurrencies would serve as a backup while transactions could not proceed,” Bhummikitti noted.

Must be very frustrating for Russians outside of Russia as they can’t use their cards issued by Russian banks that use Visa and Mastercard to pay. There’s a proposal in Thailand now to allow them to use crypto to pay for stuff. https://t.co/4MJsOxElI4
— (@ayshardzn) March 9, 2022

As regulators around the world have been actively moving to limit Russia’s chances to potentially evade sanctions with crypto, some local lawmakers also started to think of crypto as a tool to potentially avoid some of the restrictions.

On Sunday, Russian State Duma deputy Alexander Yakubovsky suggested that Russia should establish and use its own crypto exchanges in a move to soften the impact of global sanctions on Russia.

“Crypto is an area where it’s hard to talk about really effective restrictions against our country,” Yakubovsky stated in an interview with the local news agency Parlamentskaya Gazeta. As previously reported, Russian authorities were intentionally limiting the service of legal crypto exchanges only to foreign companies like Binance, with the Bank of Russia deliberately limiting local financial firms from offering crypto investment.

Thailand Approves Tax Relief Measures for Crypto Trading

March 11, 2022 Bitcoin.com

Thailand Seeks to Offer Russian Tourists Crypto Payment Option Amid Fiat Sanctions

March 8, 2022 Bitcoin.com

Thailand reportedly exempts 7% crypto tax for traders on authorized exchanges

March 8, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

The revised tax policy exempts crypto traders from the mandatory 7% VAT on authorized exchanges while offering tax exemptions of up to 10 years for crypto startup investors.

The finance ministry of Thailand has reportedly eased up crypto tax regulations to promote investment in the digital asset market.

The changes to the tax regulations come just a few weeks after the government scrapped its early plans of introducing a 15% tax on crypto gains. The new tax policy exempts crypto traders from the 7% value-added tax (VAT) on authorized exchanges, reported Reuters.

The revised tax policy would also allow traders to offset their annual losses against gains for their crypto investment. This comes as big relief for traders, given most of the governments at this point are only looking to tax gains without taking into account the losses incurred by traders due to the crypto market volatility. The new tax exemptions would come into effect from April 2022 and last until December 2023.

The new tax policy promises to offer tax exemptions of up to 10 years for investors who invest for at least two years in crypto startups in the country.

The finance minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith said that the revised tax policies had been developed to promote the nascent digital asset market in South East Asia’s second-largest economy. Thailand has grown to become one of the leading crypto destinations in Asia, owing to the government’s crypto-centered regulations and ability to work on the feedback from the stakeholders of the ecosystem.

The new tax policies could also become a benchmark for other nations currently looking to impose some form of crypto taxation. Indian crypto traders have been demanding something similar after the Indian government announced a 30% tax on crypto holdings without accounting for the losses incurred by traders.

Binance back in Malaysia via a strategic stake in regulated digital exchange

March 2, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Asia

Binance has forged an array of new partnerships with regulated firms, especially in countries where it has found it difficult to get regulatory approval.

Binance, the world’s leading crypto exchange by trading volume is returning to the Malaysian markets with a strategic stake in the country’s regulated digital asset trading platfrom MX Global.

Binance and Cuscapi Berhad acquired a key stake in MX Global, one of the four Recognized Market Operators - Digital Asset Exchange licensed by the Securities Commission (SC) in Malaysia.

Hello Malaysia. https://t.co/vsHzHlm7KI
— CZ Binance (@cz_binance) March 1, 2022

The leading crypto exchange has a significant presence in the Asian region and with its new partnership in Malaysia, the exchange aims to expand the sustainable growth of the crypto market in the Southeast Asia region. MX Global, on the other hand, aims to bank on the recent partnership and new flow of capital to expand its market and become a leading liquidity hub in the region.

Binance’s recent slew of partnerships also reflects a pattern of sorts, especially in regions where the exchange has found it difficult to mitigate regulatory compliance requirements independently. The crypto exchange has restricted its services in Malaysia back in July 2021 after an order from the SC over non-compliance with the regulatory laws.

In Singapore, the crypto exchange withdrew its crypto license application just a week after announcing an 18% stake in the private stock exchange. The crypto exchange also managed to access the United Kingdom’s sterling payment network through its partnership with PaySafe, after getting barred by the country’s regulator in 2021.

The crypto exchange undertook a similar strategy in Thailand as well, where the exchange had to shut its operation in July 2021, but made a re-entry in the Thai market with its partnership with the country’s Gulf Energy Development PCL in January 2022.

In 2021, Binance faced regulatory warnings and service restrictions from over a dozen countries. However, the exchange managed to mend its regulatory relationship in several of these nations through third-party partnerships.

thailand