Thailand just made a big decision for the country’s cryptocurrency industry. The Cabinet has approved sweeping changes to the country’s Derivatives Act that will allow digital assets to serve as the underlying asset for regulated financial products.
Thanks to a new rule, big banks and official companies can create safe, regulated products—like “crypto funds” or ways to bet on Bitcoin’s price going up/down—just like they do with stocks. It’s safer and more normal for common people.
The decision is a substantial pivot in official thinking about digital assets. Once viewed with suspicion, regulators now recognize digital assets as a legitimate investment class within the nation’s formal capital markets infrastructure.
“This development will help promote more inclusive market growth, facilitate diversification and more effective risk management, and expand investment opportunities for a broader range of investors,” said Pornanong Budsaratragoon, Secretary-General of Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
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Closing the Gap Between Markets and Law
The latest development shows that regulators are now wanting to foster the growth of digital assets. They are also taking a serious look at supervisory requirements for exchanges and clearing houses, working alongside Thailand Futures Exchange Public Company Limited to nail down contract specifications that reflect how risky these assets actually are.
Pichapen Prateepavanich, who runs infrastructure firm Gather Beyond, points out that digital assets were already operating as financial instruments—regulators are simply catching up. “The Thai SEC is aligning regulation with market reality,” she said, arguing that getting the structure right could bring hedging tools, deeper liquidity, and the kind of institutional money Thailand’s shallow markets badly need.
But Prateepavanich threw in a warning: loosening the rules without beefing up disclosure requirements and capital standards risks destabilizing the system. Innovation has to stay tethered to investor safeguards and legal accountability, she stressed.
Thailand started working on crypto regulation back in 2018 through the Emergency Decree on Digital Asset Businesses, handing the SEC authority to go after exchanges and token issuers. Since then, authorities banned crypto payments, tightened the screws on licensed firms, and gave stablecoin trading the nod last year. This newest shift dovetails with the SEC’s three-year roadmap covering tokenization projects and crypto ETF development. Such moves will go a long way in establishing Thailand as a credible player in digital assets.
