Thailand Bans Three Cryptos From ICO Investment, Trading Pairs

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of Thailand has made a bold move recently. Basically, it decided to ban at least three major digital currencies, disabling them from being utilized in initial coin offerings (ICOs). More importantly, the decision disallows these cryptos from used as base trading pairs when it comes to crypto exchanges that are operating in the country.

Banning Three Cryptos

According to the official report, the regulator has decided to disallow Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, and Ethereum Classic from being utilized in ICOs and/or on various trading platforms. The decision to do so was made following assessments based on related news, development subjects, and other important factors.

The report further suggests that while the ban could look bigger in scale, it does not necessarily bring a significant impact on investors. The reason behind this, though, is pretty straightforward. To put it simply, there is no ICO deemed authorized in Thailand that is able to accept the aforementioned digital currencies, most especially the investments for these cryptos. At the same time, no cryptocurrency exchanges are using them when it comes to base trading pairs.

As of right now, the government of Thailand has revealed a list of allowed digital currencies. It includes, but not limited to, Stellar, Ripple, Ethereum, and the world’s leading crypto Bitcoin. All of them can be used in ICOs and, more importantly, as base trading pairs. It should be noted, however, that they do not hold with them a legal tender status to be utilized as payments for goods and services.

List of Approved Cryptos

The government also put out a list of seven approved digital currencies, a detail that was made official in July of last year. During that time, the list was made based on a handful of factors, such as liquidity and the number of tokens involved in circulation, not to mention their respective decentralization.

So far, seven digital currency companies have been given approval to legally operate in the country. Interestingly, five of them are reportedly crypto exchanges. Just earlier this year, the country’s very own Central Bank asked financial questions not to engage in any form of business related to digital assets.

The move from the Central Bank also included the decision to deny customers of financial institutions from buying cryptos using credit cards. But despite the move, the country remains a stronghold of cryptocurrencies. In fact, it is one of the countries in the world that has the largest number of owners of digital currencies.