Thailand Bans Meme Cryptos and NFTs

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The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of Thailand has just imposed a total ban on all meme cryptocurrencies, including the popular Dogecoin, as well as fan tokens and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

In an announcement made by the regulator last Saturday 12, the SEC orders the country’s cryptocurrency exchanges to remove the coins, NFTs, utility tokens and social tokens. They have 30 days to do so.

The SEC claims that it has decided to implement this new measure to prevent traders from investing in tokens which have “no clear objective or substance.”

However, it is worth noting that the measure does not have retrospective effect, which means that it will not affect any assets launched before June 11, when the measure came into force.

In particular, the affected assets are:

• Meme tokens with no clear objective or substance or underlying, and whose price running on social media trends.
• Fan tokens that are tokenized by the fame of influencers.
• Non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
• Digital tokens utilized in blockchain transactions and issued by digital asset exchanges or related persons.        

This is not the first measure implemented by Thailand to regulate the crypto industry. In May, Thailand’s Anti-Money Laundering Office (AMLO) ordered cryptocurrency exchanges to ask their clients to verify their accounts physically.