Thailand SEC plans Travel Rule requiring five-year crypto transfer records

Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission has proposed new rules requiring digital asset operators to collect, verify and retain information tied to crypto transfers under its planned Travel Rule framework.

According to Thailand’s SEC, the draft notification would require operators to establish risk management systems for digital asset transfers and receipts, giving them enough information to identify transactions that may involve money laundering or technology-related crime.

The proposal covers transfers between customers and regulated service providers as well as transactions involving self-hosted wallets. Operators would need to collect information about customers and their counterparties, examine service providers used on the other side of a transaction and keep records supporting every transfer for at least five years.

For the first two years of the retention period, transaction information would have to remain in a format that allows supervisory authorities to retrieve or inspect it immediately.

Thailand Travel Rule would extend checks to self-hosted wallets

One of the requirements would apply when customers send digital assets to or receive them from self-hosted wallets.

In such cases, licensed operators would have to verify that the customer owns the wallet or has authority to control it. Counterparty checks would extend to digital asset operators or other service providers involved in transfers.

The SEC said the proposed controls are intended to provide enough information to trace the financial route of a digital asset transaction and allow suspicious activity to be examined, prevented or intercepted.

Similar information-sharing requirements form part of the Travel Rule framework used internationally for anti-money laundering controls. The Financial Action Task Force extended its Travel Rule standards to virtual assets and virtual asset service providers in 2019.

As crypto.news previously explained, the framework requires covered crypto service providers to collect, share and retain identifying information about senders and recipients. The standard extends an anti-money laundering control originally developed for traditional financial transfers to digital assets.

Thailand’s draft assigns separate obligations depending on where an operator sits within a transaction.

An Ordering Digital Asset Operator would have to send information about the transferor and transferee together with the transfer instruction to the Beneficiary Digital Asset Operator.

When an intermediary operator sits along the transaction route, its qualifications must be checked and other prescribed steps taken so that the route can be tracked continuously.

Operators receiving digital assets would face corresponding risk management requirements, including collecting information on the transferor and transferee when assets arrive from an ordering operator or customer.

SEC and AMLO are coordinating crypto transfer rules

The proposal follows work between the SEC and Thailand’s Anti-Money Laundering Office as authorities develop controls for suspicious financial transactions.

Thailand’s Subcommittee on Financial Data Connectivity to Enhance Monitoring of Suspicious Financial Transactions previously resolved that the SEC and AMLO should prepare guidance for digital asset businesses. AMLO has separately been preparing rules under the country’s anti-money laundering law.

The SEC said it coordinated with AMLO when setting the proposed requirements so that information would accompany digital asset transfers and could be used for transaction monitoring.

Before preparing the latest draft, the regulator held an initial consultation on the principles between March and April 2026. Most parties involved agreed with the proposed framework and submitted comments, which the SEC considered while refining the requirements.

Anti-money laundering scrutiny has been increasing across Thailand’s digital asset sector. In July, the Bank of Thailand and SEC began examining stablecoin transactions after authorities identified high-value USDT activity that may have bypassed normal financial reporting channels.

The review used data analytics to examine unusual transactions as authorities investigated potential links to money laundering, online gambling and other activity connected with Thailand’s grey economy.

Authorities have been looking beyond transactions handled directly through regulated platforms. A global INTERPOL operation reported in July resulted in 5,811 arrests across 97 countries and territories and intercepted $293 million in illicit assets.

Thai authorities involved in the operation uncovered a suspected crypto laundering network that moved proceeds from romance scams through cross-chain token swaps. One wallet linked to the investigation had processed more than $122.5 million, according to details from the operation.

The Travel Rule itself has been moving into stricter forms across several Asian markets. South Korea approved changes in August that will remove its transfer threshold and require information sharing for every transfer between registered domestic virtual asset service providers.

Taiwan has taken a similar route. Its Financial Supervisory Commission proposed mandatory information sharing for transfers between domestic crypto platforms, with the requirements scheduled to begin in October.

Thailand is tightening oversight of licensed crypto firms

Thailand’s proposed transfer controls come as the SEC develops several other rules for the domestic digital asset sector.

In July, the regulator filed a criminal complaint against Bitkub Online and two former directors over alleged false regulatory reporting connected to a 2021 cyberattack.

The attack resulted in the loss of digital assets valued at approximately 1.7 billion baht, or $50 million. The SEC alleged that reports filed between May 10 and Oct. 30, 2021, did not accurately account for the reduction in Bitkub’s digital asset holdings after attackers stole 16 cryptocurrencies.

Bitkub said it had delayed disclosure of the attack because it wanted to prevent a bank run and later replaced the stolen assets, leaving customers without losses. The SEC’s complaint concerned information submitted to regulators following the incident.

Regulatory controls have expanded while Thailand continues developing new routes for regulated crypto investment.

On Aug. 31, the SEC proposed rules that would open overseas crypto derivatives to retail investors through licensed intermediaries when the products meet specified requirements.

Eligible contracts would need features comparable with products permitted in Thailand and use regulated central counterparty clearing arrangements overseas. Other foreign crypto derivatives would remain restricted to institutional investors under the proposal.

The latest derivatives proposal follows Thailand’s decision earlier in 2026 to recognize cryptocurrencies as eligible underlying assets under its Derivatives Trading Act. The regulator and Thailand Futures Exchange have since been developing requirements for crypto-linked futures and options.

Another consultation in April sought to streamline crypto derivatives rules by allowing licensed digital asset businesses to apply for derivatives licenses without establishing separate corporate entities.

Existing requirements make firms establish a different entity for derivatives operations, creating additional operational and compliance costs.

Thailand is building rules for more regulated crypto products

Thailand has moved its spot crypto ETF plans forward as well.

In August, regulators advanced Bitcoin and Ether ETF rules to the draft stage, proposing that locally listed funds maintain average net exposure of at least 80% of their net asset value to their underlying cryptocurrency over each accounting year.

Bitcoin and Ether would initially be the only eligible cryptocurrencies. Domestic digital asset custodians would remain the primary custody option, although the SEC could permit qualified foreign custodians when it considers their use necessary.

The framework would allow locally established crypto ETFs to trade on the Stock Exchange of Thailand, giving investors exposure through securities accounts without requiring them to manage cryptocurrency wallets directly.

Thailand had already recognized cryptocurrencies as underlying assets for regulated derivatives in February, opening the way for products based on assets such as Bitcoin. The change gave regulators and the Thailand Futures Exchange a legal basis to develop crypto-linked futures and options.

For the Travel Rule proposal, the SEC said the requirements are intended to improve transaction tracing and prevent licensed businesses from being used for money laundering or terrorist financing without placing an undue burden on operators.

The regulator published the draft notification through its website and Thailand’s Law Portal and invited digital asset businesses, other relevant parties and members of the public to submit comments through the consultation channels until July 10, 2026.