Overview
- The Bank of Thailand and the Securities and Exchange Commission opened a joint audit of high-volume USDT (Tether) transactions, a step regulators confirmed between July 11 and July 13 to trace beneficial owners and detect transfers that bypass remittance rules.
- The central bank will require customers who deposit 5 million baht or more in cash to document the source of funds, with the rule scheduled to take effect in the fourth quarter of 2026.
- An April rule that forced explanations for cash withdrawals of the same size produced a roughly 35% drop in high-value withdrawals, and reported monthly physical gold withdrawals fell from about 4,000 kg to roughly 700 kg under tighter oversight.
- Thailand is not banning USDT or USDC; the SEC approved both stablecoins for trading on licensed exchanges in March 2025, and any formal penalties from the audit will be handled by the SEC although none have been announced yet.
- Regulators say this package—linking data-led stablecoin checks with cash and gold controls—is meant to close routes used by the country’s ‘grey’ economy and could push more trading onto licensed platforms while increasing compliance burdens for high-value actors.