Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued a warning against a new kind of cryptocurrency scam that lures victims into investing with websites that claim to be legal cryptocurrency trading platforms based overseas.
Lieutenant Woranan Silam, a spokesman for the Thai Police’ Department of Special Investigation, pointed on Saturday to “FX Trading Corporation” as one of these fraudulent platforms. According to The Bangkok Post, the platform “is not authorised to trade in digital currencies as claimed.”
Several other fraudulent platforms “claim to be foreign companies operating outside Thailand offering services via their online portals,” the report explained. “It is not known how much they have ripped off from an unsuspecting public.”
Silam explained that because these companies appear to be operating overseas, Thai authorities will require cooperation from their overseas counterparts in order to investigate the platforms and prosecute their operators, if necessary.
Thailand’s SEC has only authorized four companies to operate digital assets businesses
The Thai SEC has only authorized four companies to operate digital assets businesses: Bitcoin Co., Bitkub Online Co., and Satang Corporation Co.; Coins TH Co is the country’s only authorized cryptocurrency broker-dealer.
The Ministry of Finance issued digital asset business licenses to these four crypto-related firms in January of this year “under the recommendation of the SEC Board.”
In March, FortuneZ reported that the Thai SEC had approved the launch of an ICO Portal. “The first ICO deal will be available for [a] public offering in the near future under the digital asset royal decree,” said Archari Suppiroj, director of the fintech department at the SEC, at the time of the approval.
“In the future, the SEC will issue a criteria that allows companies to apply tokenization to securities and other assets. This will help bridge the digital asset royal decree and securities law.” The Thai SEC is also reportedly considering issuing a set of guidelines for security token offerings (STO).
In late July, Huobi announced that it would be launching a regulated digital assets exchange in Thailand in Q3 of this year. The Thai Stock Exchange is also planning on launching a digital assets trading platform that will be launched in 2020.
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— Huobi (@HuobiGlobal) July 26, 2019
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