Thailand’s central bank and securities regulator will jointly review large USDT transactions under a new framework announced this week. According to BeInCrypto, the rules are expected to take effect in the fourth quarter of 2026.
The new measures focus on large cash deposits. Anyone depositing 5 million baht (about US$150,000) or more must provide proof of where the money came from. This expands existing rules that already apply to cash withdrawals above the same amount.
Since April, customers withdrawing more than 5 million baht in cash have been required to explain the business purpose of the transaction and why they could not use an electronic transfer. Authorities said large cash withdrawals have fallen by 35% since the rule was introduced, leading them to apply similar checks to large cash deposits.
The Bank of Thailand and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will also review unusually large USDT transactions. Their goal is to identify the real owner behind transactions that may be designed to hide ownership or avoid normal money transfer channels.
Bank of Thailand Governor Vitai Ratanakorn said these measures are long-term structural reforms rather than temporary solutions. The central bank is also considering stricter rules for high-value cash exchanges and gold trading.
The increased focus on USDT follows concerns raised in January, when the governor revealed that around 40% of USDT sellers on local platforms were foreign nationals. Under current regulations, they should not be operating in Thailand’s regulated digital asset market.
Thailand is not banning USDT. In March 2025, the SEC approved both USDT and USDC for trading on licensed cryptocurrency exchanges as base trading pairs. The new enforcement targets the misuse of USDT, not the stablecoin itself.
USDT has been linked to several money laundering investigations across Southeast Asia. The stablecoin is widely used because it offers U.S. dollar liquidity, fast cross-border transfers, and operates mainly on the TRON blockchain, where transactions are pseudonymous.
Tether can freeze specific wallet addresses, including 131 TRON wallets sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury in July. Thai authorities and other regional regulators have relied on this capability during joint investigations.
Thailand’s move is part of a broader regional effort to strengthen stablecoin oversight. Over the past 18 months, Singapore, Vietnam, and the Philippines have also introduced tighter regulations to address money laundering risks.
A major challenge will be monitoring blockchain transactions, which requires advanced analytical tools. To improve enforcement, the Bank of Thailand and the SEC will combine blockchain analytics with traditional financial investigations, tracing funds from crypto platforms to bank accounts and identifying the individuals behind crypto wallet addresses.
