REGULATION

First-ever government NFT ban! Thailand's Securities Exchange Commission orders prohibition of NFTs, meme coins, fan tokens, and utility tokens.

share
First-ever government NFT ban! Thailand

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of Thailand has ordered exchanges to delist meme coins, fan tokens, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and exchange-issued "platform coins." The Thai SEC claims this is to protect the interests of traders.

Table of Contents

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of Thailand has ordered exchanges to delist meme coins, fan tokens, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and exchange-issued "platform coins." The Thai SEC claims that this move is to protect traders' interests.

The ban was approved on Wednesday and will be enforced on Friday. Exchanges have a 29-day grace period to delist these cryptocurrencies.

The restricted cryptocurrencies by the Thai SEC are as follows:

  1. Meme coins: Lack clear objectives, substance, or underlying value, and their prices are influenced by social media trends
  2. Fan tokens: Tokenized based on the popularity of internet celebrities
  3. Non-fungible tokens (NFTs): Digital creations used to declare ownership of an object or rights, granting specific rights. They are unique and cannot be exchanged in equal amounts with other digital tokens of the same category or type;
  4. Digital tokens issued by cryptocurrency exchanges or related parties for trading purposes. (i.e., platform coins)

Although the Thai SEC did not specify which cryptocurrencies to delist, based on their definition of meme coins, it applies to almost all cryptocurrencies. Just looking at how Bitcoin has been influenced by tweets from Tesla's CEO Elon Musk in recent months shows how social media can impact Bitcoin.

However, the SEC did not generalize all cryptocurrencies but specifically targeted meme coins, likely aiming at highly volatile cryptocurrencies such as Dogecoin, Shiba Inu, which, although influenced by Musk, are widely accepted based on "memes" rather than their financial value.

As for platform coins like OKEx token, Huobi, or BNB, people hold them to reduce transaction fees during trading. Additionally, the Thai SEC specifically mentioned that the issuers of platform coins must comply with their whitepapers' requirements, or they must withdraw the tokens.

The Thai SEC did not explain the reason for banning these cryptocurrencies, but it is generally believed that Thailand does not intend to completely ban cryptocurrencies. This regulation is seen as the latest move by the regulatory body to supervise and protect investors.

This article is authorized and reproduced from Horizon Next Sumari News, original link here.