Thailand’s financial regulator is set to approve five projects this month out of an estimated 5O ICOs expecting to raise funds from the Thai capital market, writes Bitcoin.com.
The Thai Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is expected to approve the as yet undisclosed projects as the new law to regulate cryptocurrencies and ICOs comes into effect. These rules issued by the SEC come just a month after the Thai government decided that cryptocurrencies were digital assets. The new legislation was originally scheduled by 8 June, but it is now likely that it won’t come into effect until the end of this month.
Seven cryptocurrencies have been deemed legal for trading on cryptocurrency exchanges, including Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, Litecoin, Stellar, and Ripple. The announcement follows two recently launched ICOs in Thailand: Jfin Coin by Jay Mart Plc’s subsidiary, J Ventures Limited, and ZMN tokens by Zmine Holdings.
SEC commissioner Thawatchai Kiatkwankil hasn’t revealed which ICOs are on the list of five, simply stating that “Out of 50 ICO projects expecting to raise funds from the Thai capital market, five are ready as initial pilot projects”. He went on to confirm that “previously leveraged” companies can do business as usual, as the law doesn’t apply “retroactively”.
The regulator’s deputy secretary Tipsuda Thavaramara, who is in charge of policy and corporate finance groups, explained that an ICO issuer must gain approval from the ICO portal it wants to be listed on. The portals will act as financial advisors to ICOs, ensuring that KYC rules are adhered to. The wait time after ICO portal approval is thought to be about two months.
Kiatkwankul added that in the future, the commission “is preparing to expand and combine its unit for registration of ICOs with initial public offerings (IPOs)”, and that his organization plans to work with ICO portals to screen illegal activity.
Companies wanting to issue tokens must have registered capital of at least THB 5 million (Thai baht approximately worth USD 156,000) according to the SEC guidelines. Retail investors can only invest up to THB 300,000 (USD 9,343) per ICO project or no more than 70% of the total value of offered tokens, with no set limits for institutional and ultra-high networth investors.
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