Thailand Bans NFTs, Meme Tokens from Regulated Exchanges

Tokens that have ‘no clear objectives or substance’ are not allowed on the country’s regulated exchanges.

article-image

Source: Shutterstock

share

key takeaways

  • Thailand is home to a burgeoning regulated digital assets industry
  • In a recent whitepaper, a Bangkok-based law firm called the legal framework around NFT’s ‘unresolved’

The Securities and Exchange Commission in Thailand isn’t a fan of CryptoPunks, Beeple or the wild market gyrations of memecoins like DOGE. 

In a release over the weekend, the country’s market regulator said that regulated exchanges in Thailand will need to cease listings meme tokens, fan tokens, NFTs and exchange utility tokens that cut transaction fees for those that hold it like Binance’s BNB or FTX’s FTT. 

Thailand is home to 13 licensed digital asset exchanges. The largest of which is Bitkub, which has around $90 million a day in trading volume according to CoinGecko.  

The Thai SEC defines meme tokens as having “no clear objectives or substance, and whose prices are dictated by social media trends.”

All this comes as the NFT market begins to cool. Data from market tracker NonFungible shows that the market peaked at a seven-day average of $176 million in sales on May 9, while as of June 14 that number has dropped to just over $9.5 million. 

NFT Sales in June 2021
NFT market data from May 7, 2021, to June 14, 2021; Source: NonFungible

The number of active wallets — people actively using NFTs — has been cut in half from around 20,500 in late March to just over 10,000 today.   

In a March whitepaper, Bangkok-based law firm Pugnatorius called the legal framework surrounding NFTs “unresolved”. The firm pointed out that in the eyes of the law, NFT’s aren’t digital certificates of ownership but rather a “certificate of sponsorship” and copyright or any sort of IP ownership remains with the creator not the purchaser. 

“Just your NFT, not your asset,” the firm concluded. 

Shortly after Beeple sold his $69.3 million NFT to a buyer named MetaKovan, the Washington Post reported that MetaKovan might have had a financial interest in a bullish NFT market as he owns a significant stake of the B20 tokens for its eponymous blockchain the NFT for Beeple’s work was sold on. 

At the time of the sale, tokens for B20 peaked at around $23.66, according to CoinGecko, and they have since dropped to 71 cents. 

Tags

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Research Report Templates.png

Research

Ethena Labs is leaping from its flagship synthetic dollar, USDe, to a full product suite—USDtb, iUSDe, and the Arbitrum-based Converge Chain—designed to marry crypto-native yields with TradFi-grade compliance. Our analysis shows how expanding into CME, ETF options, and tokenized Treasuries could lift protocol revenue from sub-$500 million in a bear case to several billion dollars if favorable regulation and institutional adoption align.

article-image

Doing one thing well and leaving everything else out is often what disruptive technologies do best

article-image

Why an analyst is kicking off COIN coverage with “buy” rating

article-image

“Bitcoin does not require a strong equity rally to move higher,” YouHodler markets chief Ruslan Lienkha said

article-image

President Trump’s comments that he will not look to fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell sent stocks higher in after-hours trading Tuesday

article-image

The trading card game will use Immutable’s zkEVM chain