‘Right’ balance in regulating Thai digital markets

Thailand needs to strike a ‘right’ balance in regulating the emerging digital asset markets, according to participants of a recent webinar organized by The Nation and Asia News Network.

Regulators should stay a little bit ahead of the risks when directing new innovation, Chia Hock Lai, Singapore Blockchain Association co-Chairman, said at the webinar entitled ‘Digital Assets: The New Paradigm Shift of the Financial World’.

Secondly, he said regulators should also be ready to safeguard risks if the trading volumes are significant.  Thirdly, regulators should keep a right balance between innovation and risk by running them in the ‘sandbox’ environment.

Korn Chatikavanij, former Thai finance minister and leader of “Kla” Party, cautioned Thai regulators should also be aware of the investors’ sentiment when imposing rules ie ban use of crypto as a method of payment, discourage public advertisement of crypto, capital gain tax.  In free market world, crypto investors worldwide can easily be shifted to unregulated markets and Thai crypto ecosystem will be jeopardised and creating negative impact on the economy.

He added that fintech startups should work closely with regulators to identify the unknowns and build up trust to formalize digital assets as the next financial mainstream and creating benefits for the country in the long run.

Jirayut Srupsrisopa, Bitkub Capital Group Holdings co-founder and Group CEO, agreed that there should be a right balance among the stakeholders to keep up with the speed of innovation and technologies in the borderless world.  The digital economy on Web 3.0 has been exponentially up and running and requires a strong digital infrastructure and ecosystem for the next generation.

The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) plans to link exchanges for both traditional and digital assets to better serve the real economy and tap new business opportunities, according to Dr Pakorn Peetathawatchai, the president of the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET).

Thailand Digital Exchange (TDX) platform owned by SET will be launched by Q3/22 subject to final approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).  This TDX will be an open platform to link both traditional and digital assets offering trading, clearing, wallet services serving Thai investors first.   

SEC Assistant Secretary-General (in charge of Legal) Thawatchai Pittayasophon highlighted 2 key issues of investors’ protection and full information disclosure.  Public hearings on any new digital asset innovation are necessary to clearly identify and mitigate the risks.   At present crypto, utilities token, and investment token are supervised by SEC.  

Digital asset trading in Asia Pacific has recorded tremendously growth during covid-19 period, said Marcus Lim, Zipmex CEO and co-founder in 4 market coverage Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Australia.   Millennials and Gen Y investors’ adoption of digital assets and other new blockchain-related opportunities such as NFT, DeFi, GameFi, Play-to-Earn, are on the growth mode.

Henry Chong, CEO of Fusang Corp in Malaysia and HK, said the global token market has been significantly growing and will partially replace the traditional investments such as shares, bonds, mutual funds.  Chong concluded that in assessing asset-backed NFTs fundamental risks of who are the counterparty, what is the nature of asset/token, and what underlying assets to this NFTs.

Nichel Gaba, PDAX founder and CEO in the Philippines, said  that key positive factors for Philippines market are crypto-friendly investors, various apps for investment, large volume of cross border remittance for migrant workers, and fund raising through tokens.