Thailand’s securities regulator intends to prohibit crypto asset service providers from offering deposit taking and lending services, so as to reduce risk and bolster investor protection.
The proposed regulation is also to “prevent a misunderstanding that deposit taking and lending services are under the same supervision as regulated digital asset businesses”, the Securities and Exchange Commission, Thailand (SEC) says in a statement recently, when it kicked off public hearings on the proposal.
The SEC already regulates crypto companies but this doesn’t cover deposit taking and lending services.
According to the SEC, the draft regulation is expected to further clarify the scope of its supervision of digital asset businesses. The public hearings end on April 7.
Singapore is also moving in a similar direction. Last October, the city state’s central bank published a consultation paper seeking public feedback on a proposal to ban crypto service providers from lending out cryptocurrencies held for retail investors.
Cayman Island-based Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange operator, offers a service called Binance Earn which pays investors up to 3.6% annually on digital asset deposits.
Binance doesn’t currently operate in either Singapore or Thailand. The firm announced a year ago that it was seeking to enter Thailand through a joint venture with Bangkok-based power producer Gulf Energy Development.
