Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) released on Wednesday a set of rules to oversee the raising of funds through initial coin offerings (ICOs) in the country, effective from July 16.
The ICO rules will come under the existing Digital Asset Management Act BE 2561. They will require from specialized ICO portals to screen Thai-based companies that want to launch a coin offering. Under scrutiny will be the fundraiser’s business plan, the structure for distributing the virtual tokens, the ability to take investor risks, as well as the source code – whether it matches the disclosed information.
Each project that gets approval from the portal will then be monitored by the SEC, whose word will be final.
The ICO portals themselves need to be SEC-approved firms under the Thai legislature with a registered capital of at least Thai baht 5 million, equal to around $150,000.
The screening process seeks to protect crypto investors from fraud, said the SEC’s secretary general Rapee Sujikitkul. He elaborated that getting green light from watchdog does not necessarily mean a certain token offering will prove successful. Investors should closely examine the available information and accept the involved risk, Rapee warned.
The ICOs
Under the new ICO policy, digital tokens will be offered to ultra-high net worth investors, venture capital companies, and private equity funds. Every investor can buy up to 70% of the overall offering value and can pay with Thai baht, Bitcoin, Bitcoin cash, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, Litecoin, Ripple and Stellar.
It became clear that five ICOs are ready to be launched as pilot projects once the new regulation has kicked in in mid-July, as reported by the Bangkok Post in June quoting SEC director of corporate finance Thawatchai Kiatkwankul. No more details of the five fundraising projects were made available though.
This article appeared first on Cryptovest
