Thailand’s State Authorities Seek Regulations on Crypto P2P Activities

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Sujha Sundararajan

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Sujha Sundararajan

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April 10, 2024

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Thailand’s state authorities held a meeting on Tuesday, calling to regulate peer-to-peer (P2P) cryptocurrency purchases and comprehensively prevent online fraud.

The meeting was spearheaded by Prasert Jantararuangthong, minister for digital economy and society, and included representatives from the Thai SEC, Bank of Thailand, Royal Thai Police, Defense Ministry, among other key departments.

During the gathering, minister Prasert urged the regulator to develop and adjust existing crypto regulations to include supervision of purchase and sale of P2P crypto.

“The move to regulate the P2P platform would not affect cryptocurrency traders on authorized exchanges,” he confirmed, per Bangkok Post.

The push to supervise crypto P2P aims to limit the channel for scammers, who use it for nefarious activities. Prasert added that the focus is a part of “series of measures” for a complete solution to handle online fraud.

The minister also called the SEC to study and consider further tightening P2P channel of crypto exchange activities. If the regulator shows no progress in developing existing regulations, Prasert inform the premier about new crypto P2P regulation scheme.

Crypto P2P Regulation in Thailand to Combat Online Fraud

Thailand has witnessed several fraud cases, where scammers posing as a legitimate business request a P2P payment for a product.

In November 2023, the Thai government launched the Anti-Online Scam Operation Center (AOC) to investigate crypto-related online scams.

Last year, Binance exchange played a major role in aiding Thailand’s Royal Police in tracking down major cryptocurrency scam criminals.

In one instance, Binance team aided in tracing criminals behind a large-scale pig butchering scam and seizing 10 billion Thai Bhat ($277M) worth of crypto assets.

As a result, Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin on April 1 ordered state authorities show concrete results related to the crackdown on rampant online fraud within 30 days.

The meeting concluded with respected parties reporting any relevant crypto online scam information to the AOC. Secondly, the central bank and the Thai Bankers’ Association are expected to take immediate action following the submission of reports.

Further, the Royal Thai Police and the Defense Ministry are supposed to take efforts to remove illegal telecom signal towers. The police can seek neighbours’ support for online crypto scam reporting and supress any call centre gangs, the meeting noted.