 What comes to mind when you hear Thailand? Perhaps a tourist paradise of endless sandy beaches, a refreshing swim in the sea, or the bustling streets of Bangkok. But how you ever thought of Thailand as one of the most dynamically developing cryptocurrency markets? In May 2018, the Royal Decree on Digital Asset Business officially authorized the use of crypto in Thailand. Today, it's estimated that more than 3.6 million ties currently own digital currencies. That's about 5.2% of the total population. Since November 2020, domestic crypto trading volume has increased by almost 600%. One of Thailand's most popular YouTubers, Be The Sky, is a supporter of cryptocurrency, and he has over 13 million subscribers. That's roughly 18% of the entire population. With such a huge platform spreading the word about cryptocurrency, it's not surprising that crypto adoption in Thailand is booming. We're going to bet that your perception of crypto in Thailand will have changed by the end of this film, almost as much as the Thai government has over the past few years. Thailand was among the first countries in the world to regulate cryptocurrencies at the national level. The authority stance has not always been welcoming, though. Back in 2013, Thailand's central bank declared crypto trading illegal. However, a year later, this ban was removed. Since 2018, cryptocurrencies have been considered as digital assets that could be issued and traded on exchanges under the supervision of the Thai Security and Exchange Commission. Just a few months ago, the Thai SEC banned meme coins and NFTs as part of a crypto crackdown. According to the regulators, the new rules are aimed at protecting traders from tokens that have no clear objective or substance and whose prices are easily manipulated. Also in May, the Thai anti-money laundering office required digital exchanges to verify users' accounts through an in-person checking procedure. Meanwhile, blockchain and crypto supporters have been working hard to help this Southeast Asian nation change its perception and push for better regulation and greater adoption. We went to Thailand to meet some of these people who are working hard to develop and grow the crypto industry. They are everyday heroes who are moving the Thai cryptocurrency market forward. On the trip, we were joined by Vadim Krakotin, the head of Cointelegraph China, who helped us get the full picture. Let's dig more deeply inside of the Thailand crypto landscape and see what we can get here. What makes the Thai crypto industry so interesting? First, the regulators are often changing their views on this asset class, trying to keep up with the changing market conditions. What's more, many companies from traditional finance are jumping onto the crypto bandwagon and creating crypto-related businesses. They all want to be at the forefront of this technological disruption. That includes large players, such as the stock market of Thailand, Siam Commercial Bank, and Kesecorn Bank. Interestingly, the Bank of Thailand is now developing a central bank digital currency. Overall, Thailand is a fertile ground for crypto business, but that's certainly not how it was a few years ago. Jiru Srupsisopatop was among the entrepreneurs affected by the rapid change of crypto regulation in Thailand. He started his business back in 2013 in a small room in the back of his parents' clothing store. Now, he is one of Thailand's leading open blockchain experts and the founder and CEO of Thailand's largest crypto exchange, BitCup. However, six years ago, he was close to being thrown behind bars. It was really tough. I was being investigated by the anti-money laundry officers. They wrote a letter with my name, investigated the company, invited me in for an interview. The Bank of Thailand also called me in in the past, even the revenue department. We had to go and explain to different regulators. I tried to call my friend that graduated from Oxford University. They were working at a very big law firm, right? No one wanted to help out. They were like, top, good luck. Even though I had the money to pay, because imagine Bitcoin like seven, eight years ago. It was really great, no right or wrong. No one wanted to risk their reputation to help. Back then, the Bank of Thailand issued an official statement warning citizens against the risks of using Bitcoin. Top had to spend months explaining to officials how Bitcoin worked, while also dealing with tax compliance issues. Six years later, the situation has changed dramatically. As of January 2021, Bitcoin claims to host over 90% of Thailand's crypto trading activity. So this is our main Bitcoin office. That houses 500 people here. And this is the support function area. This is our marketing PR communication team. They are sitting here. And this is our finance team. And if you notice, the CFO desk is with the team. And that is the CMO desk. They are sitting with the team. It's an open space. In addition to the crypto exchange, TOPS Groups of Companies is engaged in implementing blockchain applications in publicly listed private companies and even in government agencies. In November 2021, Thailand's largest bank bought a majority stake in Bitcoin. That increased the valuation of its parent company to over $1 billion, making it one of the first Thai unicorns. Cryptocurrency adoptions in Thailand right now is growing really fast. We are one of the very first countries to issue out a license by the Thai SEC. So Thai SEC right now has a good understanding about blockchain, about cryptocurrency. They are one of the first regulators in the world to create a digital asset exchange license. And we are one of the very first companies to be a fully regulated, you know, licensed cryptocurrency exchange. Recently, BitCub launched FansToken, a project that converts celebrities' reputation into digital assets through blockchain technology and NFTs. The goal of the project is to boost the popularity of blockchain technology in Thailand. To achieve this, BitCub partnered up with the country's most popular YouTube influencers. Meet Kritt Boonirong, aka Bithiska, one of the most popular YouTubers in Thailand. He has more than 13 million subscribers. I've been doing it for a while. I created my team and we started to generate more content, which allowed me to get more than 10 million subscribers. Only two people in Thailand who have received Diamond YouTube button and I'm the second one who got it. Yeah, I'm the second person. In 2009, I heard of the name Bitcoin with the founder's name of some of the most popular YouTubers. With the founder's name of Satoshi Nakamoto. And then I just forgot about it. Five years later, I went to a friend's house who was a programmer. And then I saw a four-sided machine with all these cables and I asked them, what is it? And he said, this is a gold digger machine. And I asked him, how does it work exactly? He explained to me that this machine is used to mine Bitcoin. And so I was interested in it and studied more about the technology. Blockchain is a very good technology, which will change a lot in the world and improve development in many industries. And then I started investing in Bitcoin. B studied computer engineering and participated in a few programming competitions. He then started trading and after that, he joined the mining business. I used to sleep here in the past. It was my office. Now I moved out. So we just use it as a storage room and we keep our machines in here. Please, come have a look. So here it is. I have two, but I don't use them anymore. In the past, I use it a lot. Just to have feelings that I was getting money. But actually, I made more money from trading than I did mining. B and his fellow YouTubers joined the fans token project as a way to reward their followers. Token holders can exchange them for content such as exclusive video clips or an experience, a one-on-one video call, an exclusive dinner, or meeting their favorite celebrity, for example. To give you an idea of the scale of this project, the five YouTube influencers have a combined total of over 40 million subscribers. Blockchain is a very good technology, which can be used in daily life. I cooperated with BitCub for their project. I think it helps support creators and influencers. Their income mainly comes from the YouTube platform, which they generate the content for. But some creators might not have enough sponsors so they just lose motivation. But now NFTs can encourage and support creators and the new generation. Another Thai influencer involved in the fans token project is Surabhath Lik Bae, or Plume. Microfans, his name be the ska. Be the ska, he's the top influencer in Thailand and he has a know-it about crypto and blockchain. I heard about Bitcoin for the first time in Australia. I went to participate in the influencer event with Bae, the ska. It was around five years ago. Back then, Bitcoin was very new. Plume is a founder of VRZO, one of the first Thai channels on YouTube, which has accumulated roughly 6.8 million subscribers. Maybe I think it's me. This is me when I was six. Six years old, yeah. And MJ was in Thailand. I was so lucky to meet him. I fell concert in Thailand. He was very nice. He didn't look like a human. He was like an angel or something. Looked like an angel or something like that. Not a human for sure. Not a human for sure. Right now, Plume is a well-known influencer advocating for cryptocurrency. This is my favorite one. Influencer Asia 2017. I was awarded as the influencer of the year. I was shocked and never thought I would get it. And yeah, I was so proud of it. Cryptocurrency was introduced in Thailand a while ago to a specific group of people. But these days, cryptocurrency or blockchain has become something that catches people's interest. My followers DM me and ask advice about crypto, blockchain and all the differences. But since this interview was recorded, the situation has changed. Back in June, Thailand Securities and Exchange Commission banned local exchanges from handling meme-based tokens, fan-based tokens, NFTs, and exchange-issued tokens. However, the ban didn't prevent BitCup from launching its own NFT marketplace. Top's business partner, Sakalcorn Sakawi, a.k.a. Tan, is among the central figures promoting the use of blockchain technology to convert influencer's popularity into digital assets. Tan came to crypto after working in the gaming industry for about 10 years. That is why he is a big supporter of NFTs. It's related to gaming and is the same concept that the hero skin or game items have value. And I see that NFTs are something new. And that can allow people to truly own something. It's digital ownership. I could tell NFTs will change the world. People can even acquire fame with it. Regulation is the most exciting part. How to make everything comply with the regulators. I think it might be the most important part for us to get right now. The odds of NFTs returning to the legal realm seem pretty good. In February 2018, the central bank of Thailand directed all banks in the country to stay away from cryptocurrencies until a regulatory framework was implemented. A few months later, in May 2018, a legal framework for cryptocurrencies came into effect. About two months after that, in August 2018, the Bank of Thailand allowed banks to set up branches that could issue tokens and invest in crypto. Little by little, enthusiasts who believe in the potential of cryptocurrencies and blockchain are shaping the future of this technology in Thailand. These enthusiasts consulted the Thai government, had their voices heard, and made real changes. I think the NFT is just that. And it needs the time to educate the people. But a lot of emerging technology starts from speculation. That's right. The NFT has the value in terms of the holder mind. What is it called? It's called a sentimental value. NBA Top Shot, I think. NBA Top Shot is very famous right now. This is Suparik Boonsart, or BIT, president of the Thai Digital Asset Association. Since its establishment, the association has had a significant impact driving the Thai digital asset industry forward on both the institutional and retail level. Besides reaching out on social media, the Digital Asset Association relies on offline gatherings like the Blockchain Thailand Genesis 2018, 2019, and 2020 events. I think in Thailand it has a lot of active communities. They help each other. They create the community and share the knowledge. But the level of the access to the DeFi, I think, is still limited to the people that have the skills to have a financial background or IT background to understand, to learn it. Another thing I think has a limitation for Thai people is about language. A lot of people are not familiar with foreign language, such as English. A lot of information is in English. So this one is a barrier for the mass adoption in Thailand. If you need to create the mass adoption of it, you need to translate to localize in Thai language. It will be better in terms of Thai market. Sanjay Pappli understood the importance of the Thai language when promoting crypto in the country. In 2018, he organized one of the biggest offline crypto events focused on Thai speakers. The gathering attracted over 3,000 people, which is quite a significant number given the context. Sanjay is another crypto enthusiast trying to change the course of history. Because all the content is usually in English. And then we also want to educate the mass adoption for the cryptocurrency, right? So I think a lot of people are asking us, when are you guys going to do an event? Is there somebody I can learn about this? And plus there's no like a big blockchain conference where all the Thai community pool together. Seven years ago, Sanjay's parents were shocked when their son decided to quit his family's textile business. Sanjay believed more in Bitcoin than in textiles. So I think definitely this is, at least in Thailand, you know what you're doing is right, right? So at least there's a clear regulation you can follow and clear set of rules what you can do and what you cannot do. Whereas in a lot of countries, it's still in a murky, grey area, so one I would say. But in Thailand, it's either you are fully compliant or you're non-compliant. So at least it's a good thing for like, I think a bigger company or even a global company to have a look at Thailand as a serious market and as a way to establish themselves as well, yeah. Ordinary people in Thailand are changing the government's view of cryptocurrencies and now big corporations are joining them, including large banks. In 2019, the stock exchange of Thailand announced that it was planning to build a new digital asset system. Earlier this year, the venture arm of Saiyan Commercial Bank, Thailand's oldest bank, set up a $50 million fund to invest in blockchain. This venture arm, known as SCB10X, previously partnered with Ripple on a blockchain-powered mobile app. The company has also worked with Azamo to use RippleNet for cross-border payments. The goal is to build and invest in the new business and crypto and the other ecosystem, right? So that's a mandate. So we get a funding around $800 million as a starting point, investing and also incubating projects. But the goal is to build the new S-curve for our Saiyan Commercial Banks. This is Kali Wu Tempo Wapit. He is responsible for many of the innovative ideas springing from SCB10X. Kali Wu was educated in Thailand as an engineer and worked in the oil and gas industry for a while. Then he went to Stanford University, where he learned a lot about entrepreneurship. When he came back to Thailand, he started working in the corporate sector focusing on innovation. It's interesting because we've been working closely with the regulators on how, because I think under the law, a bank cannot hold a token. But in terms of the SIC, we have a subsidiaries called SCB Securities. SCB Securities actually can, you know, working under another regulator. So we're working with them on investing in tokens, right? So now we can have a vehicle to own a token, you know, staff, our safe and all those. I think we figure it out. So definitely can do. And then we just start sorting out the project, right? You know, it's safe and defy as well. But you know, we invest in BlockFi and we haven't announced, but we invest in a fund, defy fund like Polychain. And also there are a number of funds that we haven't announced. SCB10X aims at decentralizing entire sectors, such as healthcare, commerce, or finance. Its team comprises a total of 35 developers, in-house designers, and product owners. They incubate five or six products simultaneously and can spin out the promising ones as subsidiaries of SCB10X. So basically, I think we split into two parts. The first thing we call it a SafeFi, right? A regulated one. It's a crypto business as well. But you know, as a bank, we need to get into a regulated industry for sure. There's a license coming out a lot. If you look at the SEC now, you know, it's exchange, broker and dealer, custodian, you know, investment, you know, investment recommendation. There are a number of things that we are definitely going towards that. At the end of the day, we believe that the banking will be changed. And one of the medium that we think it's going to be very important is that through the, I would say, not the cryptocurrencies, but it's like the way you use blockchain technologies to do that. So it's something called SafeFi. So I think we're all in on that, right? So now there's a license coming up. We apply for the license and try to get it up and running as fast as possible or recruiting talent that one day. Another thing is DeFi, decentralized and unregulated. We've been talking with, you know, regulators around how can we work in this. So it's going to be pretty much investment right now. So we have $50 million funds investing in tokens. And then we start investing in a number of projects. So there are the two parts. You know, we are doing a SafeFi building it and also investing in DeFi and also incubating a number of some of the small projects internally in my team on the DeFi as well. If you're talking about Thai people, we have to step back on, like, how it can improve people's life, right? Because Thai people, I think, there's just only a fraction of them can have a bank account. I mean, for Thai people who already learned how to use crypto, how to use DeFi projects, for them it looks very, very attractive. Because in a bank, just a traditional bank, you can get maybe less than 1% per year. And in DeFi, you can get 20%, 30%, 50%. I'm not talking about some crazy, you know, APIs, like, yeah, yeah. In a recent development, the Thai SEC approved the trading of real asset-backed digital tokens. Now Thai property owners are allowed to raise funds by issuing tokens backed by real estate. Among the requirements for conducting an initial coin offering, real estate projects should be 80% completed or valued at at least $500 million, around $15 million. To find out all the details, we visited Kularat Punksathaporn, a lawyer and cryptocurrency lobbyist for the Thai government. In Thailand, we call it investment tokens. And investment tokens are regulated as digital tokens under digital asset law. And because it is regulated, the whole offering process must comply with the requirements of the SEC. It must be done through an approved ICO portal. And the issuer must do the filing with the SEC. And the project must have, you know, approval from the SEC as well. Holders of investment tokens are rewarded with profit sharing or dividends. These benefits will be written and enforced by a smart contract. However, holders will have no equity or voting rights on the company board, since investment tokens don't represent the company's security or assets. And because this is going to be the first ever regulated digital token offering project in Thailand, the first is always the hardest, I would say. So it took quite some time, but that relates to how we need to really be in discussion with the regulators, talk about the benefits that the project can do for the economy, talk about the risks that are involved and how to address those risks for the investors, for example, and look at the regulations and see whether the regulations already support the project or there needs to be further amendment for the project. The next big step for Thailand could be the creation of its own state-owned stablecoin. In June 2020, the Bank of Thailand launched a project to pilot test its CBDC payment system. The plan was to develop a prototype and test real-life business use cases for its central bank digital currency. Earlier this year, the Bank of Thailand and other major banks across Asia have joined forces to build a cross-border CBDC. The project is called the Multiple Central Bank Digital Currency Bridge and aims to address the pain points of cross-border transfers. These include cost inefficiencies and the complex regulations that accompany moving money from one country to another. I think they did a good job on trying to catch up on this and when regulators always catch up, to be honest, because innovators move ahead, they catch up. I think they catch up very fast and they work closely with us. Six or even seven years is an imperceptible timeframe in the span of global human history. But in that relatively short period, ordinary ties went from sitting in tiny rooms behind their parent's stores to creating communities that positively impact national policies. Could one have imagined this seven years ago when reading the news about the Bitcoin ban in this paradise kingdom? So we'll ask you again, what comes to mind when you hear Thailand? Could you achieve the same?