By Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission has proposed new controls on stablecoin transfers as regulators seek to curb money laundering, cybercrime and the use of digital assets to bypass international money-transfer rules.
Under the proposal, customers using licensed Thai digital asset operators would generally be allowed to transfer stablecoins only between accounts or wallets verified as belonging to themselves. Transfers into an exchange account from another person’s wallet, or withdrawals to another person’s wallet, would be prohibited. The SEC has also proposed a daily limit of 5 million baht — roughly $150,000 — for each direction of transfer. The cap would apply separately to inbound and outbound stablecoin movements, per person and per digital asset operator.
Cap Applies Separately to Deposits and Withdrawals
The structure of the proposed limit is important. A customer could transfer up to 5 million baht of stablecoins into an account with a particular licensed operator in a day and separately transfer up to 5 million baht out. It is therefore not a single combined 5 million baht daily allowance.
The SEC would also require transfer sizes to be consistent with the customer’s income and financial position. Originating and destination wallets would be subject to Thailand’s Travel Rule requirements, customer profiling and screening, including checks for mule accounts and wallets associated with illegal activity. Operators would also be expected to use blockchain analytics and transaction-monitoring tools to identify links with high-risk or watchlisted addresses. The 5 million baht limit would not apply to transfers between customer accounts at Thai digital asset operators where both sides comply with the Travel Rule. Certain regulated businesses, Bank of Thailand-supervised entities operating under approved frameworks and market makers providing liquidity in stablecoin-baht pairs would also be exempt.
Thailand Targets Growing USDT Activity
The SEC said its monitoring had identified a significant increase in the volume and value of stablecoin transactions, particularly involving Tether’s USDT, alongside transaction patterns that could create risks related to money laundering, cybercrime and the circumvention of cross-border payment rules. The proposal goes beyond wallet transfers. The regulator is also considering tighter rules for off-platform transactions conducted by digital asset brokers and dealers, including a minimum transaction size of 3 million baht and requirements to publicly disclose transaction pricing. Market makers and liquidity providers would face enhanced disclosure, screening and monitoring requirements, while brokers would be prohibited from using liquidity providers for stablecoin-baht trading pairs under certain arrangements.
The consultation follows Thailand’s introduction of a digital-asset Travel Rule earlier in September, intended to ensure licensed operators collect sufficient information about senders and recipients to assess money-laundering risks. Public consultation on the stablecoin proposals opened on September 11 and runs until September 25, 2026. The measures are therefore not yet final rules and could be revised following industry feedback. If adopted, the framework would represent one of Thailand’s most direct attempts to constrain the movement of stablecoins between regulated platforms and external wallets while preserving higher-volume transfers within the country’s supervised digital asset ecosystem.