Bitcoin Forum

As the cryptocurrency adoption rate increases every day across the globe and many countries are using bitcoin in their daily business transactions and this has in so many ways help in boosting the economy, of recent many countries have being accepting tax payment in crypto as in  Florida (https://u.today/businesses-in-florida-to-be-able-to-pay-taxes-in-crypto) among others but to the other side of it is coming about Thailand Puting a ban on making cryptocurrency transaction by it commercial counterparts, this statement was made by the Thailand SEC.

It could be recalled on how Thailand has recorded a massive growth in the crypto space with over 600% increase in transaction volume as at last year while over $3 billion worth of cryptocurrency user asset was recorded since the beginning of 2022.

This "ban" is effective starting from 1st of April, 2022, all their financial institutions will be unavailable to carryout transaction in bitcoin or any other crypto asset and in making payments for goods and services. It is also good to note that this crypto ban only affect their banks and any use of crypto as a payment media for goods and services but individuals trading and investment in cryptocurrency is not banned and a good alternative to this is using P2P for transactions in other to have a continuous crypto runnings and operations from been pause in the region.

https://ambcrypto.com/thailand-one-of-asias-biggest-adopters-now-barred-from-using-crypto-as-payment/?utm_source=thecryptoapp

I believe Thailand will launch their own CBDC, the Thai government obviously doesn't want their citizens to have absolute freedom to transact. But at the same time I believe the Thai government wants to HODL Bitcoin as part of their FOREX/commodity reserves? Why are the allowing Bitcoin as an investment?

This is exactly what happened with the Nigerians government, they did the same thing by placing ban on crypto just to reveal the launch of their E-Naira CBDC, i think you're right, government are contending with cryptocurrency but they lack the understanding that CBDC is totally different from cryptocurrency.

Speaking of CBDC, I did posted earlier about the Philippines doing a pilot implementation run on it here (https://cointelegraph.com/news/the-philippines-to-launch-pilot-cbdc-implementation).

I just don’t know if CBDC’s poses a threat to the adoption of cryptocurrencies as mode of payment or so. Every country has their own point of view regarding Bitcoin. As you said about Thailand not allowing crypto as mode of payment but allowing as investment, maybe they need to study more deeply about it as they don’t want to be left behind in the trend like the anti-Bitcoin countries right now.

CBDCs never serve as a threat to the adoption of cryptocurrencies. As more people are getting into the cryptocurrency usage it isn't possible to restrict people from using bitcoin with mere ban. Whether it is Nigeria, China, Thailand or some other country people continue to use even after ban. People once used to cryptocurrency will never think of CBDC which is a digital form of having control over ones finance.

I also follow your thought. Thailand will not be banning the use of cryptocurrency as payment only to introduce their digital currency because countries that have done the banning or that have introduced CBDC have not made any reasonable progress in their financial sector. It is about monitoring the bitcoin use but digital currency can't do that, they are no threat to cryptocurrency
The restrictions and banning is not a factor that will affect bitcoin.

Nothing to worry about this ban.

Although as much as I've seen in some other websites, it has quite spread a panic for most newbies. But upon reading the whole context, there's really nothing to be worried then.

I don't see it as a threat honestly and in reality, what I and the others can see is that it can be of a great help to push the price of bitcoin higher.

Due to this exchanges will be unable to deposit and withdraw fiat which will affect their local exchange if there is any. But on the other side it will create more demand for p2p trading platform which will cause more price difference than the actual Market value.

in some ASEAN countries they have blocked cryptocurrency investment for financial institutions or for everyday payments which will replace the role of their currency .. but crypto investment for ordinary people is still allowed and even supported by the government, so crypto investment not completely blocked, only regulated for some parties

... indeed in the ASEAN region cryptocurrencies are developing and I am sure that in the next few years crypto adoption in this region will increase

Does anyone know how many platforms are licensed in that country or if there is one based in Thailand?

Generally, such regulatory decisions will not affect the Bitcoin market or individuals and I also believe that Thais can use decentralized platforms, which do not require identity verification or peer-to-peer platforms.

The problem will be on commercial activities, which seem rather small, but the ban will not last long and the state soon realizes that it is doing the wrong thing.
The most important question, does this mean that individuals should not pay taxes on cryptocurrencies?

If they do that then they should start introducing their own digital asset just like china and some other places, the Thailand government clearly doesn't want to see their people having borderless and freedom of transactions in their deals, as I know this country because I've been in Thailand for a few days I can tell there are many frauds and scammers and many people doing illegal deals such as gun and drug even some people where selling underage girls, so that's normal for me to see the government wants to keep the transactions under control.

Of course they could do all things that they do want or does have in their mind but still ending up on banning it but there would be some exclusions or exemptions for that one and its clear as day
on what would really be their motive in doing that.Speaking of ban then there's nothing we could do about it because once decisions or laws had been passed or implied then citizens of a particular
country doesnt really have any choice but to abide it because it was mandated and absolute rule or else you would be facing up some problems if you do make yourself going against it.

We hope that Thailand will soon discover something new that will be more profitable for Thailand, then maybe Thailand will resume cryptocurrency payments. There is no reason to worry. Many countries use cryptocurrency to their advantage.

Did Thailand even have that much amount of stores that accepted Bitcoin payments and/or transactions? I don't think it's going to be that much of an impact, whether it's on the market or on the Thai side. Short term maybe, but that's just FUD doing its thing, blowing up the issue to more than what it actually is.

Not really, no. CBDCs are at most, going to improve qol stuff that fiat couldn't, but it doesn't exactly change what it is at its core. And well, there's also the issue that cryptocurrency payments haven't really been a big thing as of yet, there are some adoptions here and there, but they're rather minimal, which is better than nothing though.

I'm in the Asia region and heard about this news. In fact, this is a surprise by countries in the Asia region
.Specifically Southeast Asia, has historically been crypto-neutral. But they ban the use of crypto for payment, "doesn't affect other uses such as investment, mining or normal trading. Basically, there will be almost no effect at all. The role of bitcoin and crypto will now be independent of anything in any one country.

It's very dangerous to underestimate your opponent. Central banks have the absolute attention and respect of politicians in various countries. If they have a decent plan to roll out a form of digital cash in CBDCs then they can suggest that it has no competitors for maximum effect. Politicians are very receptive to doing what financial experts are telling them to do much of the time. While they won't be able to eradicate other cryptocurrencies entirely, making laws to restrict them can do a lot of damage to their reputation with the average person.

I don't think it's a serious problem for crypto users in Thailand, especially bitcoin, my understanding is only a few percent of crypto users in Thailand who transact goods with bitcoin, if crypto users can still invest, trade and sell crypto to make Thai Baht I think they will be fine on this matter.

I'm sure this ban doesn't have a negative impact on crypto users there, hopefully they don't block all crypto to Baht or Baht to crypto transactions, such as exchanges, trades, investments etc.

cases like this are common in every country, where its use is prohibited for payment of goods, or as a means of payment. it's the same in my country, where cryptocurrencies also have a position like that. but as long as it's not forbidden to own and trade it, so that we make a profit and convert it into fiat currency, I think it's still normal for now. with development later I think bitcoin will acquire its original function over time

They truly understand. 8)


CBDC in its final form will pose a threat to each citizen's right to transact. Everything we have feared as Bitcoiners will be happening in CBDC. Your freedom that you enjoy with paper money right now? WILL BE GONE. They will monitor you, censor you, cage you. It's very important that Bitcoin should be HODLed by as many people as possible.

I think so because I have been following up with other countries that have banned cryptocurrency and it happens that they do release their own central bank digital currency. When China banned bitcoin they went ahead to also release their digital Yuan, and that was the same thing with other countries that banned bitcoin, a few of them released digital currencies.

I guess they are doing so as to make their citizens to adopt their own digital currencies and not rely more on bitcoin. But I don’t think that is necessary because a lot of people would choose to make use of Bitcoin than any other digital currency, even if it’s owned by the government.

Moreover, I know someone who is living a country where Bitcoin has been banned, and peer-to-peer has been their only way of making use of bitcoin or trading it. The only thing that the government does is that they will stop centralized exchanges and also stop banks from working with any of those exchanges. People who are in those countries just continues their use of cryptocurrency by making use of P2P wallets and exchanges such as Paxful and Binance P2P, it really goes a long way to help them.

This shows that not every country would be interested in bitcoin or any cryptocurrency just because others are doing so.

For any government the scariest part is to lose control over there own currency and not able to control how money go inside or outside on the country. So When there is no proper network to control crypto base transaction, then government has to take strong action to do something to control the whole situation.
Thai massive $3 billion worth of cryptocurrency user asset, It is already cleared how much control crypto already take over and can do more in coming days. So government need a proper plan and network to control this much money and has to stablish a new system where government could take a closer look and also collect a % of transaction for the government too. Its my conclusion because here in Pakistan our Government is taking same type of step and not illegalizing the crypto fully yet.

Well, I guess Thai government simply doesn't want crypto to take over as one of the most commonly used currency for paying goods and services. Because If that happens, there will be a significant decrease of using their own currency and will never get possible percentage for every transaction.

Good thing they have not totally ban crypto, Thai people can still use it like the OP said using P2P trading.

CBDC's are designed to compete with crypto currency. They're just a digitalized version of fiat currencies that can be controlled more efficiently. The plan most of these central banks are going to try is introduce CBDC and out-compete crypto, and then coordinate with the government to regulate crypto's or tax it at a high rate so people revert to these banks' currencies. Most ordinary people couldn't tell you the difference between a crypto currency and a CBDC, so it's an easy sell for a bank to pitch their own centralized token - attach the buzz word "block chain" to it and have people consume it without thinking.

Countries that are trying to issue their CBDC are countries that have a fantasy of being able to beat bitcoin.  Russia and the UK are examples of countries that have tried to issue their CBDCs but failed because Bitcon could not be fought.  later surely this rule will be changed by them ^{(countries which banned crypto for payment)}.

It’s not possible for the government to control the flow of the cryptocurrency in the country.So it may be the reason for the ban of crypto currency’s in the Thailand.But even after the ban of crypto currency,their will be some flow in the market.Many county legalization to control the flow of crypto in the country.Many people fear of legalization because to fear of paying taxes to government.

Many countries did the same at some point. Russia did it when they were working on their digital ruble. Usually countries that are afraid of their fiat currency becoming unstable block or limit bitcoin payments. It's not something you should be concerned about because if they wanted to stop people from buying bitcoin they'd ban it completely, but they only want it not to be accepted in stores as a form of payment, which is stupid and counterproductive. It shows the country is afraid of something, maybe facing some internal problems and is trying to enforce more use of government-issued money. People will still use crypto despite such ban and they will exchange it for fiat. They don't need payments to be enabled.

The surge in the use of crypto in Thailand has become very massive, so the government immediately takes action to take control of finances that come out without any control at all, it is clear they feel that they are making crypto transactions as an act of money laundering which causes their fiat to swell. I think this is a natural thing for a country to identify transactions outside government authorities in calculating state finances. But in the end, I don't expect the government to completely shut down the crypto space in Thailand.

I wonder how much is the percentage of users using their cryptocurrency for payment transactions, I believe most of us are here for capital appreciation. Well, the ban is meant to secure the future of their fiat currency since they are already working to make it digitalize, they can’t compete with cryptocurrency so the best solution is to ban it. This happened on many countries already, and look at them right now, they are making Bitcoin legal, Russia is a big example here. This is not permanent, expect a lot of changes with regards to restrictions in the future.

They wouldnt push through crypto payments specially decentralized one yet there are rumors about CBDC's but turns out to have some delay but it would
be on this late 2022.

Thai Central Bank to Delay CBDC Test Till Late 2022: Report
https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2021/12/24/thai-central-bank-to-delay-cbdc-test-till-late-2022-report/

So its not that surprising that they do prefer on having their own than on accepting on what we do have today.

They don’t want their people choose on which cryptocurrency to be used online, just like the other countries they decided to make their own digital currency than to adopt what’s already in the market. That delay doesn’t mean they will lift the ban for crypto, for sure they have back up plans for this. Cryptocurrency will continue to rise despite of this kind of news, they can’t totally stop their people from using crypto because this is decentralized.

This ban is only applied for payment purposes, isn't it? This means all people in Thailand still can use crypto as a digital asset. It is not so different from the regulation in my country (Indonesia), crypto is legal for a digital asset only. However, it doesn't become a big problem since people still can use crypto for trading or for investment. If they want to pay for goods or services, they can convert their crypto coins to fiats. So, I'm sure this ban won't impact anything in crypto market. Don't worry!!

You are definitely right that it is just unstoppable if people or citizens of a particular country would really intend to engage with decentralized crypto unless if it would be blocked manually by their ISP
in regarding with those crypto related sites then that would be a pain in the ass but its totally useless since there are several ways on bypassing it without being detected or caught but of course
there would be some consequences once you do get caught but actually it is really close to impossible if you are just mindful on covering up your tracks.

Yes, that's one way to do it. Convert their crypto to fiat before using it for payment. Because if they can still hold crypto assets and trade without a problem, then, it is no big deal. So long they can use trading platforms, they can always use their crypto. Sooner or later, their government will change their stance towards crypto. So for those who are long-term holders, they can just store it in their noncustodial wallets.

Since I'm used to buying things with fiat, I only use crypto as a digital asset. So every time I buy something from the profit I make from crypto,
I always convert my crypto into fiat. The process is very fast, so it's not something to worry about for Thai residents if the government finally bans
using crypto as payment. It's not the end of everything, because there is always a way to spend the crypto that we have even though the country
where we live forbids using crypto as payment. I agree with what you said there is a possibility in the future the Thai government will change its mind
and legalize crypto as payment. So just be grateful for the current situation if we can still own crypto and use crypto as a digital asset.

In the year 2022, we should not have news like this. I mean Thailand is known to be a cheap place, people are not making a lot of people and this means that we should not really be banning them to use crypto, we should be supporting them.

People from Thailand and Philippines and many other smaller nations like that ended up working hardcore just for Axie owners so that they could bring in food to their tables, that tells you how little it takes for them to live, just an income from the game itself allowed them to get richer. So, if you ban crypto payments in Thailand, you are not helping the nation get better, you are hurting the nation for sure.

Most of middle east countries facing similar situating. They are barely managing there daily life. So many peoples try too get something from crypto.
The problem here is not the use of crypto but the control of money. countries like Thailand, filipin , Iran etc doesn't have a system to control money laundering and tax evasion control over crypto and this could cause a serious damage to country economy. In order to control this type of situation they have to ban crypto and find a way to control the over all flow of crypto in whole country.
So I think this ban was dire in this kind of situation.

A standard crypto is not owned by any government and it was not their responsibility to control it. Government only owns fiat money and they still own and control it even in the emergence of cryptos and I don't think that a government can strictly control their own currency because if they do then why there are still money laundering, frauds and other similar acts related to money?

And even if they can regulate or control crypto, the same thing can still going to happen. Why can't they just be fair with cryptos? since cryptos don't totally differ with the fiat currencies and it was the people's rights to choose if what currency they like. It's not the government's business anymore.

The market has not reacted in any way, since there is no mention of an absolute ban on the use of cryptocurrencies among all citizens of the country. But everything can still come back and the Thai government may soon reconsider its attitude to crypto transactions, as it did, for example, in India. Crypto adopting is constantly evolving and it is more beneficial for countries to regulate it and impose regulations for legal use, regulation, and taxation than to ban it completely.

Thailand has just tested it, while the countries that first issued their CBDC have stopped it lol...

trust me this thai CBDC will never circulate, they will definitely delay until they finally give up on doing that because issuing a CBDC right now and fighting bitcoin is a stupid thing. see how now Russians who are so in love with Bitcoin, they have given up on CBDC.

If China had already that digital Yuan then why Thailand could make out the same thing too? Just like with this China Rolls Out Digital Yuan for Foreigners at the Olympics (https://www.wsj.com/video/series/on-the-news/china-rolls-out-digital-yuan-for-foreigners-at-the-olympics/443BEAC3-8885-46C2-BC8D-83A031A1791F) which is already on that testing phase and they are really that encouraging on making use of their CBDC's which we could not say that it wont really push through on some countries who would take the path but you do actually got the point that fighting bitcoin
is stupid thing because it cant really be stopped no matter on what they do and thats why they do make their own instead.

Overall, I'd say maybe 5% of bitcoin users buy things with it. Maybe even less. I had coins for many years and I've paid for things like online services and computer games, but it was maybe once a year.

When it comes to poorer countries like Thailand I'd expect the numbers to be even lower. Maybe 10% of the whole populations have used bitcoin, out of which half is still holding and out of that half maybe 1% is spending. Those aren't real statistics but if you have these please prove me wrong. I'd really like to see a proof that at least 10% of bitcoin users in Thailand pays with it on regular basis. With the way Bitcoin is developing it's not going to happen. People are going to be hoarding and using it for collateral while spending stable coins and fiat. A payment ban will not change anything.

The prohibition is due to the concern of the regulatory body for money laundering and the inability to respond to this fact.

Crypto users in Thailand will still be able to use exchanges and P2P.

It is a shame because with the model of Thailand because it is one of the countries with the most experience in crypto, it can provide a path to follow for other nations to adopt bitcoin.

Money laundering around crypto will be present, there will be much to learn and how to act to avoid the dark side of money.

So there's a threat of laundering money through simple services like paying fora pizza or a taxi but there's no threat of laundering on exchanges? I think the government of Thailand has no idea how things work in crypto :D

I agree with people who say the ban won't do much to an average user. They will still have an option of exchanging their coins or even buying goods and services like they do for cash. How are they going to check if someone bought a moped with cash or with crypto if both sides say it was cash?

I read the first page and it says only individual trades are allowed or P2P therefore non-P2P exchanges are included in the ban. It's going to be weird if they restrict the use of crypto only for small service and not for big service because laundering usually happens on big services such as in trading platforms, in mixing sites, and also in gambling sites. Most people use crypto only for investment and maybe a little bit of trade?

So, the kind of ban that happened in Thailand is not a big problem for them. Never heard that crypto has been approved as legal tender in Thailand so there is no problem with buying goods there, they can always use their local money.

This is interesting- so the threat came from the idea that users might be involved in money laundering by using crypto payments? I think the possible remedy for this is to regulate their local exchanges with more KYC documents, if they have any. Though the problem lies on the fact that if people were to transact using globally/universally accepted exchanges, then it would be difficult for their government to track down their payments.

This is one of the negative effects of transacting cryptocurrencies but I do personally think that its positive effects outweigh such negative effects. The opportunity of integrating BTC into your financial method can have a positive impact in payments, in general.

As for me, no matter how their government prohibit the use of cryptocurrency in different transactions, they couldn't totally stop people from using cryptocurrency because they won't be able to track or even regulate it. That I think is the advantage of using crypto. There are plenty of ways to encash their crypto funds so I don't think it would be a big threat for them.

Actually government don't want to down the banking system. In a country, all the people are not educated and well known to crypto. Payment system in digital method is useful but it will need more time. Banning of Bitcoin isn't good news for crypto lovers.

If the government concern is because of money laundering, then banning cryptocurrency wasn’t really a good idea. I think the best decision they would have made was to look further into how to regulate cryptocurrency transactions and be able to turn out transactions that has to do with laundering of money.

But, by banning cryptocurrency they are encouraging a lot of people to move into peer to peer trading and that means there would be no way for them to be able to keep record of some of the transactions that are taking place through cryptocurrency. So, the decision they made wasn’t really a good one. The government always thinks that they can just ban cryptocurrency and people would stop making use of it, but it never works that way.

This is just a partial ban at least exchanges can still carry out p2p transactions and crypto can still be traded on exchanges. I think the reaction of the people of Thai towards the limitation will decide the next of their leaders on either to ban the asset completely or reverse the ban. Most times i blame crypto users for most ban that comes by on crypto in their locality because many tend to abuse the privacy by using the system for illegal transactions and funding illicit acts

For sure whether they like it or not individual trading of cryptocurrency is not going to stop. I have never seen a place where the government has been able to stop people from making use of Peer to peer exchanges. In countries where cryptocurrency has been banned, people still continue to make use of P2P exchanges and it has been the savior of the day every time that the government decides to make such a move on the cryptocurrency community in any country.

The only platforms that usually get affected by these laws at the exchanges that are centralized. These are the ones that falls under the government rules and they work with banks, so if the government decides that they want to ban them at any moment they can do that easily.

Do you have a link to support your comment?

Even if they ban using crypto for payment they still can't track or know who's using crypto as a payment but unless of course if people choose to use their local exchange to exchange fiat. Although, we don't know why their government has to do it but maybe what the above said might be true that their government planning to make their own CBDC.

That is what the governments do not seem to understand, trading peer to peer without any middleman was the way bitcoin was supposed to be exchanged, however out of convenience people began to use centralized exchanges, if governments keep applying pressure to centralized exchanges then we will come to the point in which decentralized exchanges and peer to peer trading will form the bulk of all the trades taking place, negating in the process all of those regulations that governments are putting forward in order to control or to ban bitcoin.

Don't worry, it a matter of time because i believe they will all come in concession to the rhythm of crypto, why is because the world now is fully going digital and any country that want to move along with the economy must ready to go digital and adopt the universal digital currency (bitcoin).



You see, each country have their own way of reasoning once it comes to public opinions, some tend to forget that it is the masses vote that catapulted them to that position they held. look at how business is growing and booming in the middle east, the government there create a suitable regulation for cryptopreneurs and also back them up, no even a single threat of ban, because they understand the trend and follow the suitability to favour their economic growth.

Exactly the same thing in my country, banks and all other financial institutions are banned from carrying out crypto transactions, and they were also instructed to restrict the account of anyone suspected to be dealing in cryptocurrencies, so we all in my country resorted to p2p as a means of withdrawing money from crypto to our bank account as well as deposit from our bank accounts to exchanges for crypto purchase.

One thing is certain, this phase will pass, their ban has not reduced the number of crypto traders in the country, Infact, the ban has even tripled the number of those who are into crypto in my country, so it's just a matter of time, they will come to the realization that this is a revolution they have no power over, and they can not stop it.

Governments may eventually give up on their aim to ban bitcoin as they realize it is something impossible to do, but now they are trying the second best alternative for them, which is to try to impose several regulations and then to try to transform bitcoin ito just another form of fiat, if I remember correctly the EU is already trying to ban anonymous transactions in the blockchain, I doubt it will work but at least it has bigger chances of success than an outright ban, so it will take a very long time before governments give up on their desire to control this market.

The thing i do see on the way that they could possibly engage or take involvement into this market which is to target out those platforms and businesses that is attached to it even though they cant control

over crypto market but having imposing these regulations and making even more tighter would really be having some significance or could really be felt out which is something that we should expect
that it would really be more rampant or common in more future years to come because controlling it literally or technically is totally impossible.

It will only be a matter of time before they change their stance on crypto.
If they see other advanced countries that are very open to crypto market, they would think, why they are very strict to it?
And if they observe the impact on the economy, they will re-assess their protocols.
Because if they will stick to their laws, they will find out quick that they may be are left behind.

It is unfortunate, because the countries whose policies are not acceptable result in people becoming irreverent, and do not stop governments, there will always be ways to enter any page or tool that makes them produce money.

Governments, or most governments are not so cunning, or better yet they do not apply intelligence, it is well known that if you mess with the particular economy of a person, the person will not prefer the decision of their rulers but of their interest own to get more money for the betterment of their life and if this includes being more irreverent to get money they will certainly do it.

You have a point, but I do not think this is a change that will happen soon, the reason is that even if bitcoin can bring huge economic benefits to the country they will also suffer a massive loss, fiat currencies allows politicians to be as irresponsible as they want with their budget and if they need even more money they can just print it, now this eventually causes inflation but this is not a problem for them as they can just get hard assets to protect themselves from those effects, so I do not think such an scenario is possible until we see a collapse of the fiat system and the politicians are desperate to get the economy back on track.

Collapse of fiat system is something that is on the impossible side of things.They couldnt just let things to happen even though there are instances which is really that showing off that inflation effects.As for
solutions and other ways then its not surprising that they would really be playing out safe and securing on whatever kind of ways that they would able to do so.
Speaking about banning crypto payments on a specific country then its not already surprising anymore as if these things are becoming a norm since not all would really appreciate crypto utility.

its step back from technology adoption if banning cryptocurrency , meanwhile alot benefits from this market beside crypto tax itself. allowing citizen access or having transaction into crypto create alot job opportunity which economicly will decrease unemployment in that country. Traditional banking system should worry  with crypto , if they could adopt it alot cost efficiency will happen.

Who will come out to bear responsibility? the rate of crime associated with fiat is far greater than in cryptocurrency, and I see this to the fact that Thailand has no any policy implementation on ground to regulate the industry that's why they appear to go against it for now or rather planning a launch of their CBDC sooner.


P2P has helped alot and has been used to byepass any form of embargo from government, the more they threat the larger the P2P network increases, the crossboarder barriers is one of the ultimate benefits users derived from the service as against the fiat banking system.

The difference is that politicians can get their share of the illegal fiat money traffic, is it money laundering? You give a bribe, is it drugs? You give a bribe, is it tax evasion? Well here you go, some more bribes.

Basically, people who have the power to ban crypto, do benefit from the crimes that happen with fiat, which is why they do not really need crypto to make it more easier for people to use money, if that happens then how would they prevent money laundering happening via crypto? They want to channel that all to fiat in order to get it. We have seen this in a lot of places, including even in big nations like UK for a while but they gave up.

We don't know yet the real reason behind this since maybe they are just testing the waters on how cryptocurrency could affect their people and economy, if they will find something good with it and they can gain something beneficial to them for sure this banning will lifted out and again their people will able to use cryptocurrency again.

They could also be quite trivial reason. The Thai economy, which is largely based on tourism, has suffered enormous losses over the last two years due to Corona, and the economy in the country is correspondingly poor, as little foreign currency is coming in. This has also weakened the local currency against the USD. As the popularity of cryptos has increased in Southeast Asia, this may be a measure to prevent even further outflow of funds from the local currency.

There should be a valid reason for the government of Thailand to stop using bitcoin as a payment method. The banking sector won't be closed if bitcoin payments are allowed as both fiat and crypto can run side by side for another decade or so. Therefore, banning bitcoin to save the banks is only a lame excuse.
Thailand is known for its tourism and if tourists would have been allowed to pay in crypto, it would have been an added advantage.

I don't like this development but I suppose each country have their own take on crypto. I'm assuming it only affects paying directly with BTC and that Thais can still use their money in exchanges to pay for stuff, provided they're converted to bhat first.


That's an interesting take on this. Still won't prevent Thais from buying up bitcoins but does somewhat make it harder for them to spend it. I'm assuming it's to buy a bit of time while they develop their own CBDC.

It's greater because fiats are old in the financial industry but if there are more crimes in fiat, there are also more criminals that are being caught out because it is more regulated in real life than in online or by using a cryptocurrency but why there's no regulation on Thailand? What kind of government they have and now they are putting the blame in crypto for their own mistake?

But, even on the other countries, it was still the same because they will all favour their own currency and they will be against the cryptos. Launching their own stable coin will be contradicting because it was still a cryptocurrency as cbdc uses blockchain technology.

It seems like a lot of countries in Asia and Africa are making a renewed effort to ban cryptocurrencies, in the end it seems like this will backfire on them. It's just another target of authoritarian style governments because it allows people to transact without having to prop up the local currency and all the corrupt insiders who run it aren't able to take a cut any longer. I guess overseas companies will still accept people from these countries and not have any sort of legal obligation to disclose their activity to the Thailand government, since they have blocked it outright - they forfeit any cooperation. Seems like the local government fails again and more open countries will have companies that win.

Yes and no, we know that fiat currencies have existed in the past and all of them with the exception of the current ones have all collapsed, however things are different now as this is the first time in history in which the currencies of every single country around the world are fiat, however the collapse of the fiat system does not mean the collapse of the economy, if for example we went back to the gold standard in the case we went thought huge levels of inflation that would be the end of the fiat system, at least for a time, but the world economy will continue, so I do not see it as something impossible, it is just something that governments will oppose with everything they have and will only abandon it if they had no other choice.

If the government are allowing their crypto users to use crypto exchange, then, it won't be a problem spending their crypto. Because they can always convert their crypto to their baht, like use p2p in binance and convert their crypto to THB, it is available by the way. So for me, even if their government is banning crypto for payments, they can still use their crypto by converting it to their local fiat first. Anyway, a lot of us are still doing this because we can only find very few merchants accepting directly in crypto payments.

Even here on my country this is always be the case on where you could freely make out some conversions from crypto to fiat since there are only few merchants who do accept crypto which you might not
able to spend your coins directly or in convenient way which means you do need to convert it out first before you could able to do so but its not really that surprising though because not all government
globally would really be ending up on having the same views and decisions towards crypto.Some might consider it and some would totally ban or prohibit it.So its nice for  those places
who do stood positive into its existence yet they would able to get that kind of benefit.

It is basically just a backwards thinking that got many nations to big debts, and they are doing the same thing all over again as well. There is really nothing that could be considered a "good" development that bans crypto, you could regulate it, because that would help you keep the people who use crypto in line, but if you ban it completely then they will continue to use it because crypto is decentralized and you can't ban it, you can make it illegal but do you really think that nobody does anything illegal in the world?

We do, and that is why they will continue to use it. Regulating would allow them to be in control, banning it would just drive people to worse situations.

I'm not surprised by the news because they are planning to build their own CBDC which some countries are doing. Bitcoin as a payment system may become a threat to their CBDC, so in order for people to patronize their own fiat centralize currency, they need to barred the popularity of bitcoin as a payment system by banning it.

I'm assuming it's not going to change much for those that convert their earnings to fiat anyway before spending them. Still, this new rule mean that businesses considering accepting bitcoins directly would not proceed with any such plans.


Indeed. I would have thought Thailand would have liked crypto in the same way as El Salvador since after all it's a big tourist spot. El Salvador seemed to have gotten a bit of additional tourism from the Bitcoin publicity. Thailand seem to be only going to limit the uses and would still benefit from bitcoin transactions done through the exchanges.

Although thailand bans using crypto for payments but i'm sure crypto users in thailand won't care about this rule, crypto is a global thing that can't be banned as long as there is internet access, and i don't think this will take long and i'm sure the thai government will soon legalize cryptocurrencies .

Governments are either incredibly shortsighted or they actually think their citizens are dumb, after all the huge inflation levels that we are seeing everywhere are their fault and now people are suffering the consequences of their mistakes, and their solution is to create a digital currency that is many times worse than the current form of money they implemented, people will not adopt their coins because they know what they are up to and they will decide to use bitcoin even if they ban it, as people will probably prefer to take their chances rather than adopt those shitcoins made by the governments.

They are afraid, that is the right word. I mean the fact that fiat is bad in every nation, which I am guessing probably even worse than average in Thailand, means that people will move their money more and more to crypto to save their money. Which means that we are looking at a situation where crypto is better seen than the fiat of that nation.

Thailand, china, and many other nations that ban crypto sees this as a threat and their governments are afraid that if they let people use it, it will hurt their fiat even more. Reality is that you are bringing more and more money to that nation if you let people earn from crypto, but they can't see that.

Thai people deserve congratulations for being active bitcoin supporters, as we can see on the article provided by OP:
The local government should have been really worried about the increasement in crypto usage, so they had to create a measure to prevent crypto replacing fiat on the daily life of the society. Anyway, I don't think it was a great idea, because people will keep using crypto as payment method, as it's not easy for the regulators to track everyone's transactions. How can the government say someone is using crypto as payment method or if this person is just selling his holdings for fiat to someone else? Thankfully, the nature of decentralized cryptocurrencies are at the favour of the citizens of such countries which are going to face restrictive and abusive limitations on the near future.

Government of Thailand need to control the over usage of cryptocurrency thats why they put a ban. I think they need more plan and preparing in future for accepting again the cryptocurrencies. But Thai can use cryptocurrency but they cannot use only in payments. There are many options to avoid this banning system. Government needs more fiat that's why they banned.

Similar to China, the Thai government is too afraid of the increasing popularity of crypto. Even though the Thai government's fear is too much,
because not all daily transactions can use crypto. In some areas that do not yet have internet access, the use of fiat is still relied upon to
make payments. After all, if the Thai government does the research properly, the majority of people in Thailand prefer to use fiat for payments.
In fact, if the Thai government can think wisely, the presence of crypto can not only improve the economy of the Thai population, however,
crypto can make up for the lack of fiat as a means of payment. Supposedly the Thai government supports crypto for payments, so that the lives of
Thai people will be much better. Because crypto was actually created as an alternative to fiat, not to replace the role of fiat. But I'm sure in the future
the Thai government will change its mind and re-legalize crypto as a payment. For now, the Thai population is just being patient, at least they
are grateful that they can still use crypto even if it is only as an investment.

The more countries that banned bitcoin then this will create new users, when banned it makes people curious and when trying to get something different let alone knowing that the global cryptocurrencies community is very large then I'm sure he will invite friends or family to get into crypto.

Sometimes curiosity actually makes or triggers someone to join the world of cryptocurrency,
each country I think has its own cryptocurrency community and that's good for crypto development,
let's see what happens after Thailand bans the use of crypto for payments

They can ban all they want but it wont mean that citizens on a particular country wouldnt really be able to engage with crypto totally nor getting rid of them yet government do really get the wrong idea.
They might able to block but not totally able to get on what they have intended.Its true that each country does have their own takings and decisions towards crypto.Some might really be that
positive but most of them are really that on negative because they do really hate up something which do really talks about decentralization which is something that they do really oppose
and tend to get rid of.

Thailand is a big market with user growth of more than 15% per year, of course the government is worried that the use of crypto will make people not want to use fiat so they get banned from crypto, but I'm sure this will have no impact on users in thailand because crypto is a unique thing and can't be limited just because it's banned.

Well said. History has taught us that it's not possible to ban BTC and other popular cryptocurrencies completely which is why many world governments gave up and decided to stick to regulating them instead which is the next best alternative for them.

Thailand will do the same in the near future in my opinion. Until then, their citizens can rely on P2P platforms like LocalBitcoins etc.

The growing number of users made many countries including Thailand banned cryptocurrencies for payments, but this never stopped users because I believe most crypto users use it for trading and long term investment so the transaction volume used for payments is very small because users understand that fees very expensive transaction compared to fiat.

it's the same in my country where there was a ban on the use of crypto for payment instruments where there were many patrols in shopping and tourism places, and after that it was orderly to do according to the rules, but this did not make crypto users less, in fact more and more because crypto is a very profitable investment and we can become rich in an instant, if the pump happens and we have been saving for a long time

That's risky if they will continue accessing something that is already banned. The news about banning can make someone curious but what about during the legalization of crypto on that country? Or maybe some are not informed by the time that happened but it would be better to stay away from cryptos if it's already banned. They should only wait once crypto is unbanned again. That is still possible because if we look at India, Bangladesh, china and others, they already went on this phase where they ban and unban cryptos.

There is no need to rush of getting involved in crypto because cryptos are still young and there is more pumps to come in the future.

some country band and again running it's a sample system of this sector so its not very important subject for currency sector.

And they are right to be afraid, we know that fiat currencies are one of the cornerstones when it comes to the power centralized governments, it is simply irresistible for them to print money and cause inflation since they are taxing all the wealth of the nation and not just your income, and in the case of the US dollar they can tax a great deal of the wealth of the whole world, but while this is a system that benefits them it is incredibly damaging to the people as they are basically stealing from them, which means that as soon as people realize they have been deceived then they will look for a way to get out of the system, and bitcoin at the time will be one of the most popular options in which they can do this.

the government is afraid that all payment instruments will switch to crypto and the role of fiat becomes a minority. I think this is a good thing to minimize inflation caused by fiat printing which is too high, whereas if crypto becomes a legal tool for payment transactions for goods and services, the government will indirectly benefit of taxes applied in crypto transactions

Government could really still put up some limits even though they would be deciding to adopt crypto into their vicinity yet people doesnt really have any place to run whenever they do decided to make out some conversions

from crypto to fiat and its true that  they could really able to generate even more taxes if ever they would really be adapting into it and imposing some percentage tax into those platforms involved.
If they had decided to ban it then there's nothing we could do but this wont be final for sure since decisions would really be having the possibility of changing in the future.

what is regulated by the Thai government is not much different from what the government of our country does, it is not allowing bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as a means of payment but allowing bitcoin and other crypto assets to be used as investments such as gold or other commodities.

That is the Streisand effect basically. I believe that when you ban something, it becomes even more popular. This phenom started back when Barbara Streisand sued a company for shooting videos of her house, and she won but her house just became even a bigger phenom and started to be shared everywhere around the world and not just local papers.

You can see this everywhere, if you see something banned to be talked about or shown, there will be even more of it shared, unless it is a bad thing like war deaths and so forth. All in all I believe that if Thailand bans crypto, it may result back with people being even more interested in it because they will wonder why it was banned to begin with.

Haters will be happy to hear the news, but I believe FUDs or the fact that many countries banned crypto for payments will not have a big impact or kill crypto growth, as happened with many crypto banned countries like China, but user growth in China continues to improve and this is what makes me not worried about being massively banned in many countries.

It is gross ignorance on the part of any government to want to ban cryptocurrency. While government that are wise are looking for ways to gain from cryptocurrency by collecting tax, some government on the other hand are hell bent on sending their civilization back to Stone age. A typical example is Nigeria you just mentioned.

Many countries still reject cryptocurrencies, but in fact the rejection is not permanent which they do, because of their inability to control and provide financial security to their citizens so they issue decrees prohibiting the use of cryptocurrencies and if they continue to carry out financial risks due to property losses and no guarantee and no protection from the state.

If there is a collective effort by the governments from US, Europe and Asia then they could restrict the market by controlling or restricting the exchanges in the country. Then their main line of target will be the miners, mostly located in large mining farms and how hard it is to identify these miners with large mining farms and if they want they can really stop them. So hypothetical it is possible to ban the usage even with regulation what happens if they impose huge tax on every transaction like India did recently.

And how exactly are the authorities of the Thailand government going to restrict people from paying with crypto? This is something which seems more or less impossible to me. Even China with their outright bans cannot keep people from mining and using crypto, so what chance does Thailand think it has?

Perhaps Thailand is just trying to get the price down so they can fill their bags, eh?  ::)

Either way, I doubt this is going to have any kind of impact other than a short-lived PR stunt for financial regulators or something.

if anything, "bad" Bitcoin PR is still PR. So thanks, Thailand! ;D ;D ;D

Thailand is a big country which according to data is estimated to be more than 10 million active users or about 18% in thailand, of course the government sees crypto as a dangerous thing with good growth so that by being banned the government can suppress the number of users, but i hope being banned is not the end of cryptocurrencies in Thailand.

thailand will end this banning soon while they know how bigger this market potency. from tax it could contribute to their national income , maybe if they attract around 3 to 5% i am believe it give huge number. alot countries around the world start bitcoin legal tender due its potency , it could also create alot online job which is could drive their national income.

It is estimated that over 3.6 million people, 5.2% of Thailand total population currently own cryptocurrency. If Thailand government still allow people there to use crypto in trading and investment then just exchange to thai baht before using it to any transaction on their country, I think it doesn't have any negative impact on crypto because in my understanding Thailand will be banned cryptocurrency just as payment method.

Many Countries have banned crypto Currency before and later they unbanned it. So Thailand will not be an exceptional. But well educated authorities or presidents will never banned Crypto Currency but will look for a way to sustain it to support the fiat economy grow fast. Because most of the youths are now using crypto currencies more than the fiat currencies. Therefore, any country that is banning crypto currency in his country does not love his youths and doesn't want the youths to grow financially. If Thailand does not stop the ban on Crypto Currency, the economy of the country will collapse Because the youths will travel to another Countries to do their transactions instead of doing it in their Countries. And one thing you have to know is that, no authority can stop the uses of crypto Currencies. Some Countries have tried to banned it but now for them. The more they banned it the more the youths used it. And I also believe that Thailand will end up like it counterparts by creating it's own E-Currency.

My prayer is that let BTC price should increase speedly