Thailand Central Bank Closely Monitors USDT Money Laundering Risks: Overseas Inflows for Exchange Reach 500-600 Million Baht in Half a Year

Thailand Central Bank Closely Monitors USDT Money Laundering Risks: Overseas Inflows for Exchange Reach 500-600 Million Baht in Half a Year On September 12, Bank of Thailand Governor Vitai Ratanakorn publicly stated that Thailand is strengthening fund tracking for USDT, cash, and gold transactions to plug loopholes that could be used for money laundering and cross-border fund transfers. Data held by the Bank of Thailand shows that every half year, approximately 500-600 million baht worth of overseas USDT is transferred into Thailand and subsequently sold and exchanged into baht. As the transaction scale continues to expand, stablecoins such as USDT have become a key cross-border funding channel of concern in Thailand. Thailand had also previously tightened regulation of large cash withdrawals, requiring enhanced review and explanation of purpose for single-day cash withdrawals of 50,000 baht or more. After the measures were implemented, the monthly scale of large cash withdrawals dropped from about 100 million baht to 400 million baht. Gold transactions are also under close scrutiny. After strengthened inspections, the scale of suspicious gold transactions has dropped from about 200 million baht per month to about 300 million baht. Vitai also proposed that consideration could be given to imposing a low transaction tax of about 0.1% on gold transactions. The focus is not on increasing tax revenue, but on leaving declaration records for large gold purchases and sales to facilitate tracking the source and destination of funds. This gold transaction tax is currently only a proposal and has not yet been formally implemented.