Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission has proposed rules that would cap stablecoin transfers at 5 million baht, about $150,000, per person per operator each day, and would ban transfers to or from third-party wallets entirely. The draft principles went into public consultation that closes September 25, after which the regulator will finalize the text. Crypto Briefing first reported the consultation package, which the commission approved on September 3.
Same-owner wallets only
Under the proposal, deposits and withdrawals of stablecoins through licensed digital asset operators would only be permitted between accounts or wallets verified as belonging to the same customer. Sending stablecoins to another person’s wallet, or receiving them from one, would be prohibited through regulated platforms. The rule effectively turns every Thai exchange into a closed loop for each user’s own funds.
The daily cap applies separately to inbound and outbound transfers, and separately for each operator a customer uses. A trader who banks with two licensed platforms could in theory move $150,000 out of each in the same day. Regulators framed the limit as a way to keep transfer values consistent with a customer’s declared income and financial standing, which points to income verification becoming part of the onboarding and review process at exchanges.
Who is exempt
The cap would not apply to transfers between customers of Thai-regulated operators when both sides comply with the Travel Rule, the anti-money-laundering standard that requires identifying the parties behind a transfer. That carve-out keeps normal exchange-to-exchange trading and settlement possible, provided the platforms can identify counterparties on both ends.
Several business categories are also carved out: licensed operators, market makers handling stablecoin versus Thai baht pairs, and firms regulated by the Bank of Thailand that have received specific approval to use stablecoins in their operations. Institutional desks that provide liquidity to Thai exchanges would continue operating at full size, and payment companies approved by the central bank could keep using stablecoins for settlement.
Off-platform transactions conducted by brokers and dealers would face a minimum value of 3 million baht, roughly $90,000, with trading prices disclosed publicly on the operator’s website. That minimum pushes small over-the-counter trades back onto regulated venues where records exist.
The compliance logic
The Travel Rule requirements run through the whole package. Regulators see stablecoin transfers as a channel for evading banking disclosure rules, since tokens can move across borders without the checks that apply to wire transfers. Tying caps to verified income and restricting transfers to same-owner wallets is meant to close that gap. The consultation documents point to money laundering and cross-border fund evasion as the two risks driving the draft.
Thailand is not acting alone. Gate News notes that regulators across Asia have been tightening stablecoin oversight this year, and Thailand’s draft is among the strictest because it touches retail transfers directly rather than only institutional flows. Japan requires exchange-level identity checks on withdrawals, Singapore restricts consumer borrowing against tokens, but neither caps daily transfer amounts the way this draft does.
What it means for users
For an ordinary Thai trader, the practical effect is that moving more than $150,000 in stablecoins in a day through a single exchange would become impossible once the rules take effect, and paying a friend or contractor from an exchange wallet would be blocked. The recipient would need an account at the same operator, or the sender would need to withdraw to a self-custody wallet first, if that remains permitted at all.
Peer-to-peer transfers through self-custody wallets sit outside the licensed operator perimeter, so the rules cannot block them directly. But the design pushes users toward regulated venues for anything at size, because unlicensed transfer channels carry their own legal exposure under Thai anti-money-laundering law. The commission is betting that convenience plus enforcement risk keeps most volume inside the perimeter.
Market makers and institutional desks are largely spared, which suggests the commission is targeting retail and gray-area flows rather than trying to shut down the local trading industry. Liquidity on Thai exchanges should survive the change. The bigger question is whether remittance use cases, a real part of stablecoin demand in Southeast Asia, get pushed to licensed payment providers or simply go underground.
Timeline and open questions
The consultation runs through September 25. After that, the SEC will confirm final rules, though the commission has not published an effective date. Operators are expected to get a transition window for wallet verification systems, but the draft is silent on how long that would last. Industry groups are likely to press for clarity on two points: whether withdrawals to hardware wallets count as same-owner transfers, and how income verification would work for customers with irregular earnings.
The proposal lands as Thailand’s crypto tax changes also move forward, and as the Bank of Thailand continues its own work on a licensed stablecoin framework for payments. The two tracks, exchange regulation and central bank payments policy, are running in parallel, and market participants are watching how they fit together. If the central bank framework authorizes baht-backed stablecoins for domestic payments while the SEC restricts transfer behavior at exchanges, Thailand could end up with a two-tier market: tightly controlled retail trading and a separate, permissioned payments rail.
For regional competitors, the draft is also a signal. Singapore and Hong Kong have courted stablecoin issuers with licensing regimes that emphasize issuer reserves over transfer restrictions. If Thailand’s model proves enforceable, other Southeast Asian regulators facing similar capital-flight concerns may copy the daily cap approach, which would fragment the regional market for stablecoin-based payments.