Thailand
A licensing regime since 2018 under an Emergency Decree, now with explicit extraterritorial reach over offshore platforms serving Thai residents.
Who regulates this
Securities and Exchange Commission, ThailandSEC
Digital asset businesses under the Emergency Decree on Digital Asset Businesses B.E. 2561 (2018). Licences are approved by the SEC and the Minister of Finance.
Bank of ThailandBOT
Payments and foreign exchange. Since July 2026 the BOT and SEC have been jointly auditing high-volume stablecoin flows, USDT in particular.
Licences and permissions
Digital Asset Exchange licence
Operating a venue that matches digital asset orders.
No person may operate an exchange, broker or dealer business in digital assets without this approval. The Decree also covers advisory, fund management and custody as separate categories.
Broker / Dealer licence
Intermediating or dealing on own account.
Distinct categories with their own conditions — an exchange licence does not cover them.
What it takes
Capital
Set per licence category by SEC notification, with registered capital requirements materially higher for an exchange than for advisory work. Amendments through 2025–2026 tightened prudential expectations; confirm the current figure for your category.
Timeline
Nine to eighteen months is realistic. The Minister of Finance sits in the approval path alongside the SEC, which adds a step outside the regulator's own timetable.
Substance
A Thai-incorporated company with local directors, a Thai office and Thai-language compliance documentation.
Where a software vendor sits
The Decree licenses the person carrying on the digital asset business. Supplying software to a licensed operator is not itself a licensable category — but read the extraterritoriality point below before assuming distance from Thailand protects you.
What catches people out
The Royal Decree on Digital Asset Businesses (No. 2), B.E. 2568 introduced an extraterritorial licensing requirement: an offshore platform that targets Thai residents must hold a Thai SEC licence. "We are not in Thailand" stopped being an answer. Enforcement in 2026 has focused on unlicensed operators serving Thai users, and the SEC has acted on it.
Verify this yourself
We would rather you checked. These are the primary and authoritative secondary sources behind the summary above.