Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved fully regulation initial coin offering through a third-party service provided by SE Digital, a Bangkok-based subsidiary of Seamico Securities.
This development came after the country initially opposed to the concept of ICO mellowed on its hard stance tentatively allowing a few companies to raise funds through the cryptocurrency-backed crowdsale.
A 2018 legislative draft in no small way contributed to the emergence of an ICO tolerant system as the law approved oversight functions on ICO. After the May 2018 legislation, the country’s finance minster Apisak Tantivorawong, stated at the time:
“The new law to comprehensively regulate cryptocurrencies and digital tokens is necessary to prevent money laundering, tax avoidance and crime. […] The new law is not meant to prohibit cryptocurrencies, initial coin offerings, and other digital asset-related translations, but to protect investors.”
SE Digital has already gotten approval to launch the first ever approved initial coin offering in the country. The company hopes to raise between 2 billion to 3 billion baht ($66 to $99 million) through the sale of its token.
With the development, Thailand which has always shown keen interest in initial coin offering and the coin market has become one of the Asian countries that have made a definitive stand on ICO regulation.
Speaking on the development, the CEO of SE Digital, Jesadavat Priebjrivat said that Thailand has made progress in the ICO space, adding that the country has moved to a phase in its capital market history as the first to have approved the regulation of ICO among Southeast Asian countries.
Even though SE Digital is charged with ICOs, the company would not be hosting speculator services such as exchanges. Elevated Returns, a strategic partner of Seamico, SE digital’s parent company hopes to launch an exchange by 2020 to facilitate trading of tokens such as the soon to be launched SE Digital’s.
SE Digital plans to render a wide range of services covering the initial coin offering subsector. The company announced that these would comprise ICO advisory, verification for compliance with anti-money laundering services, primary issuance and access to secondary market.
