The Bank of Thailand tightens stablecoin regulation, focusing on investigating large-scale abnormal USDT transactions.

Mars Finance News. On July 13, the Bank of Thailand said it has begun using data analytics tools to screen for abnormal large transactions in the stablecoin market, with a focus on USDT issued by Tether, in order to combat illegal fund flows and “grey economy” activities. Bank of Thailand Governor Vitai Ratanakorn said that the initial screening has found that some transactions appear to have intentionally evaded information disclosure requirements or transferred funds by bypassing the traditional banking system. Since regulatory authority over digital assets falls under the Thailand Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the central bank will hand over the relevant leads to the SEC for further investigation.

This stablecoin sweep is part of Thailand’s crackdown on the “grey economy.” Since April this year, Thailand has required banks to verify the purpose of cash withdrawals of more than 5 million Thai baht (about $150k) per transaction, and the scale of large cash withdrawals has fallen by about 35%. Starting from the fourth quarter, large cash deposits will also be required to report the source of funds. In addition, regulators have strengthened oversight of gold trading, large cash exchanges, and “runner accounts” used in online gambling; the monthly amount of gold withdrawn has fallen from about 4,000 kilograms to about 700 kilograms.

In recent years, Thailand has continued to intensify its crackdown on crypto-related crimes. Police recently uncovered a cross-chain money-laundering network. The involved wallets transferred more than $122.5 million within 10 months, and investigations are ongoing into a cross-border money-laundering case involving $300 million and illegal crypto mining operations. Meanwhile, Thailand is still moving forward with the development of a compliant crypto market. The Thai SEC has proposed a three-year development plan covering tokenized assets and crypto ETFs, and the Bank of Thailand has also said it is advancing the development of a stablecoin pegged to the Thai baht as part of an upgrade to financial infrastructure.