Thailand and Implementing Anti-Money Laundering Regulations

After the advent of cryptocurrencies, one of the main concerns about them has been the possibility of their being used in the dark corners of the web. It means those parts of the web in which different crimes such as selling drugs, illegal guns and other criminal activities take place. The fact that people are anonymous in Blockchain-based transactions is another reason as to why the possibility for financial trades among terrorist or criminal groups has increased more than before. Due to these capacities for the growth of criminal activities with Blockchain and cryptocurrencies, some countries including Thailand intend to take serious measures to combat money laundering. In the view of Thai authorities, cryptocurrencies are very likely to be used for money laundering and to combat this matter, serious steps should be taken.

Measures by Thailand; Preventative and Beneficial

There has been no criminal activity regarding cryptocurrencies in the field of money laundering in Thailand, but the authorities of this country believe that setting preventative legislation and measures in this regard can help control such activities and prevent future crimes from happening. As a result, all the activities that take place in the field of cryptocurrencies across the internet in Thailand, should submit their performance report to the anti-money laundering organization (AMLO). In this way it would be possible to trace activities that are done with the aim of money laundering.

Addressing Money Laundering with Cryptocurrencies on an International Scale

Thailand is one of the member states of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). This organization has a special attention toward cryptocurrencies in order to prevent the entrance of activities related to money laundering fields to them. If activities such as money laundering with cryptocurrencies are to be prevented, international regulations need to be set in this field. Regulations that are followed by all countries and prevent dangerous crimes in various dimensions. One of the controversial topics about controlling cryptocurrencies is related to crypto trades.
Exchanges give each other the information related to their customers regarding crypto trades. As a result, the possibility of forming criminal activities and money laundering increases. FATF believes that these exchanges and all the actors who have a similar role in the field of cryptocurrencies, should submit their operation information to institutes that are launched for observing the matters related to cryptocurrencies.

Thailand’s Insistence on Fighting Money Laundering

The authorities of Thailand believe that criminals can easily exchange their assets to cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and other virtual assets, and thus making the tracing of such assets very difficult. The insistence of the Thai government on setting regulations and implementing them in the field of cryptocurrencies shows that it is futile to wait for U.S. to become the leader in regulating the field of cryptocurrencies and different Asian and European countries can turn into important and active actors in the field of cryptocurrencies by the regulations they set in this field and affect the future of crypto regulation. The prosperity of cryptocurrencies in some Asian countries like Thailand and South Korea is really interesting.
 

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