Continued growth of Thailand's digital asset market expected

Brooks Entwistle, senior vice president and managing director of crypto solution provider Ripple, noted that Thailand's digital asset market had grown significantly and advised the related sectors to work together on developing a regulatory framework to allow the ecosystem to further expand.

He explained that a clear regulatory framework is necessary to earn the confidence of consumers and investors.

Ripple's policy director for Asia-Pacific, Rahul Advani, said one of the reasons behind the growth of the digital asset market in the region is the ease and convenience it has brought to international money transfers. Old-fashioned transfers are slow and expensive, especially in terms of foreign currency where losses are usually experienced in exchange rate variations.

He added that Thailand's digital asset market has grown exponentially despite the Bank of Thailand (BOT) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)'s focus on consumer protection. “Thai government agencies are good partners in digital asset market development,” he said, adding that he expected the market to evolve further as government agencies openly engage in the technology.

Angela Ang, senior policy adviser of blockchain intelligence company TRM Labs, said Thailand had been among the early adopters of digital assets.

This has allowed the country to improve its regulatory framework to meet consumers’ and investors' needs, she said, adding that the country's clear regulations have helped boost confidence among consumers and investors.

Expressing the hope that Thailand's market would expand further to meet the next age of digital assets, she said compliance in this second age will be influenced by three key themes:

• Adapting regulatory and compliant approaches to decentralised finance (DeFi)

• Rise of supervisory transparency

• Moving from technical compliance to effectiveness