Cryptos Trading Account For US Expats in Thailand

[suzannegoh]

I tried to open an account with bx.in.th in Thailand but that was rejected because they don’t accept business from American citizens.  And I tried opening a Coinbase account in the US but that was rejected because I don’t have a valid residential address in the US.  What other options exist for US Expats who live in Thailand and have bank accounts in both Thailand and the US?

[davidst01]

Use Binance or Kucoin for sure. Yesterday I registered with Kucoin and they dont ask for id. I sent 1 btc there and traded it into their kucoin KCS coin. Now I earn 6% for nothing and can trade all the alts. These 2 exchanges are not concerned about IRS issues and will not comply with any requests from them. That is why they are so popular. 

[suzannegoh]

16 hours ago, davidst01 said:

Use Binance or Kucoin for sure. Yesterday I registered with Kucoin and they dont ask for id. I sent 1 btc there and traded it into their kucoin KCS coin. Now I earn 6% for nothing and can trade all the alts. These 2 exchanges are not concerned about IRS issues and will not comply with any requests from them. That is why they are so popular. 

Thanks for the suggestions.  I just created an account with Kucoin but I don't see an option to fund the account with cash, only with various crypto-coins.  Does that sound right?  The problem with that is that I don't have any cryptos yet.

[jadee]

That's right, it's crypto-to-crypto - no fiat currencies are supported. 

Edited January 13, 2018 by jadee

[davidst01]

1 hour ago, suzannegoh said:

Thanks for the suggestions.  I just created an account with Kucoin but I don't see an option to fund the account with cash, only with various crypto-coins.  Does that sound right?  The problem with that is that I don't have any cryptos yet.

thats right. just send btc or ethereum there. same with binance

[shadowmaster1971]

try coins.co.th it does not appear to have restrictions for US citizens.

Here you can buy bitcoin through many avenues then transfer your preferred exchange.

[Blackheart1916]

18 hours ago, davidst01 said:

Use Binance or Kucoin for sure. Yesterday I registered with Kucoin and they dont ask for id. I sent 1 btc there and traded it into their kucoin KCS coin. Now I earn 6% for nothing and can trade all the alts. These 2 exchanges are not concerned about IRS issues and will not comply with any requests from them. That is why they are so popular. 

Hi David.How long did it take for the account to be operational? I registered with two different exchanges recently and both said up to two weeks to verify. I already have crypto in my original ex but want to get it moving. Cheers.

[cookai]

LocalEthereum.com and LocalBitcoins.com are hands down the easiest way to buy crypto with our without a Thai bank account.  But for that ease, you pay a few extra points.

Edited January 13, 2018 by cookai

[Toshiba66]

coins.co.th is the one to use here.

[GemsLove]

Binance is a better choice than Kucoin.

[suzannegoh]

coins.co.th is the one to use here.

coins.co.th accepted a new account from me and allowed me to link my Thai bank account to it, but they are showing BTC prices that are much higher than what I'm seeing on financial web sites. For instance, as I write this they are showing a price of 442,745 Baht per bitcoin, which at present exchange rates would be $13879, while Yahoo Finance is telling me that the price is $11764. Any thoughts about that?

[shadowmaster1971]

1 hour ago, suzannegoh said:

 

coins.co.th accepted a new account from me and allowed me to link my Thai bank account to it, but they are showing BTC prices that are much higher than what I'm seeing on financial web sites. For instance, as I write this they are showing a price of 442,745 Baht per bitcoin, which at present exchange rates would be $13879, while Yahoo Finance is telling me that the price is $11764. Any thoughts about that?

 

Well basically in Thailand their is a premium (10-20% depending on what you buy) on bitcoin and alt coin prices - whilst prices do sort of mirror the the global market (in movement) prices are localised to a degree (bx.co.th has BTC @ B417,000?.  That was the same situation with Korea exchanges - upto 30% premium.

 

But there are exchanges that have prices lower than the world market price as well.

 

Im lucky that I have exchange accounts in HK and can capitalise on the higher prices in TH.  When I need to transfer money from HK to TH, I drop money on the HK exchange then transfer my BTC, XRP or ETH to thailand exchange and cashout .

 

If you can do something similar to the above it is worth it.

[suzannegoh]

28 minutes ago, shadowmaster1971 said:

Well basically in Thailand their is a premium (10-20% depending on what you buy) on bitcoin and alt coin prices - whilst prices do sort of mirror the the global market (in movement) prices are localised to a degree (bx.co.th has BTC @ B417,000?.  That was the same situation with Korea exchanges - upto 30% premium.

 

But there are exchanges that have prices lower than the world market price as well.

 

Im lucky that I have exchange accounts in HK and can capitalise on the higher prices in TH.  When I need to transfer money from HK to TH, I drop money on the HK exchange then transfer my BTC, XRP or ETH to thailand exchange and cashout .

 

If you can do something similar to the above it is worth it.

 

So then you’re in the hole 10 to 20% the second that you buy BTC in Thailand?  I know that I didn’t understand the new school of economics surrounding bitcoin very well but that sounds like an extraordinarily large frontend load for any investment.

[shadowmaster1971]

2 minutes ago, suzannegoh said:

 

So then you’re in the hole 10 to 20% the second that you buy BTC in Thailand?  I know that I didn’t understand the new school of economics surrounding bitcoin very well but that sounds like an extraordinarily large frontend load for any investment.

Yes "spreads" or "premiums" can certainly vary a lot between different exchanges in, US, EU & Asia.

 

Well yes and no in the hole.  Obviously if you are selling your BTC in Thailand  (bought in TH) then prices movements will obviously determine 

if it is a profit or loss.  But selling in overseas exchanges doesn't always equate as a loss.  Obviously buying BTC in Thailand which has say a 20% premium then you just need to wait until the overseas exchanges prices breaks even the premium you paid in TH, but of course if BTC in the USA breaks even your TH price, then obviously you would also making profit if you were selling in Thailand.

[phycokiller]

10 minutes ago, suzannegoh said:

 

So then you’re in the hole 10 to 20% the second that you buy BTC in Thailand?  I know that I didn’t understand the new school of economics surrounding bitcoin very well but that sounds like an extraordinarily large frontend load for any investment.

only if you intend to sell outside Of Thailand in future, otherwise its relative

[shadowmaster1971]

Just now, phycokiller said:

only if you intend to sell outside Of Thailand in future, otherwise its relative

Yes agree. 

[Toshiba66]

12 hours ago, suzannegoh said:

 

coins.co.th accepted a new account from me and allowed me to link my Thai bank account to it, but they are showing BTC prices that are much higher than what I'm seeing on financial web sites. For instance, as I write this they are showing a price of 442,745 Baht per bitcoin, which at present exchange rates would be $13879, while Yahoo Finance is telling me that the price is $11764. Any thoughts about that?

 

Australian exchanges are the same. Coinspot is 10-20% dearer than coinbase or coindesk. The rates seem to vary from day to day. If you buy and sell on the same exchange I don't think it matters much like the above post states. Is there any other exchanges that you can link a Thai Bank Account to? I am not aware of any.

Edited January 19, 2018 by Toshiba66

[shadowmaster1971]

2 hours ago, Toshiba66 said:

Australian exchanges are the same. Coinspot is 10-20% dearer than coinbase or coindesk. The rates seem to vary from day to day. If you buy and sell on the same exchange I don't think it matters much like the above post states. Is there any other exchanges that you can link a Thai Bank Account to? I am not aware of any.

bx.co.th in thailand links thai bank accounts, that the only other exchange i know in TH.  They wont accept US citizens though.

[Toshiba66]

23 hours ago, shadowmaster1971 said:

bx.co.th in thailand links thai bank accounts, that the only other exchange i know in TH.  They wont accept US citizens though.

Oh. I didn't know about this one, thank you.  I thought there was only coins.co.th.

 

Do you know how they compare?

 

USA and Canada are really having issues with this whole crypto thing. Some companies are shutting down ops there.

[shadowmaster1971]

16 minutes ago, Toshiba66 said:

Oh. I didn't know about this one, thank you.  I thought there was only coins.co.th.

 

Do you know how they compare?

 

USA and Canada are really having issues with this whole crypto thing. Some companies are shutting down ops there.

 

 

bx.co.th (BX) is an exchange has been around since 2013.  Whereas coins.th is really a place to buy and sell  BTC at a huge premium and massive spread between their buy/sell price.

 

BX has about 30 different coins listed.

I am new to cryptos but find BX is easy to use.  Interface seems clean and doesn't have that in your face graphs everywhere.

Depositign money into your account for me is strait forward I do it  via online transfer and within about 1 hr I get a conformation of the deposit.  Trading and withdrawing is good in the sense every thing you do you get confirmation emails on what you are doing etc.  I have transferred  coins in and out with no problems. And withdrawing THB back to you account is straight forward.

 

BX is unique in that they list all the holdings on the coins they hold "Proof of Funds Summary".

BX is like a most other exchanges you come across, though they do have a premium on prices.  Though their prices in their movements do mirror the global market.  I have yet to encounter any problems with them so far and fees for trading are neither expensive nor cheap - middle of the road.

 

IF you an expat in Thailand and often transferring money from overseas bank accounts doing it through Crypto Exchanges could be beneficial.  If you have a Crypto account in you home country it could be easier and faster to buy some coins say in that exchange and transfer to BX in Thailand.

 

At the moment the global price for ETH is about US$1060 buying overseas then transferring it BX you will get around US$1996 on their exchange as of 11.30am BKK time.

 

 

[suzannegoh]

only if you intend to sell outside Of Thailand in future, otherwise its relative

That's a point that I'm confused by. If there's a permanent price differential between exchanges in Thailand and the US, what prevents someone from buying BTC in the US and then immediately transferring them to Thailand and selling them for a quick 10 to 20 percent profit? I would have expected big players to be set up to be able to arbitrage even very small differentials so I'm really surprised that a 10% differential would be able to exist in perpetuity.

[shadowmaster1971]

1 minute ago, suzannegoh said:

 

That's a point that I'm confused by. If there's a permanent price differential between exchanges in Thailand and the US, what prevents someone from buying BTC in the US and then immediately transferring them to Thailand and selling them for a quick 10 to 20 percent profit? I would have expected big players to be set up to be able to arbitrage even very small differentials so I'm really surprised that a 10% differential would be able to exist in perpetuity.

 

Nothing - thats they beauty of BTC, ETH etc etc is that it is borderless to trade.  The only problem I could foresee is transferring the money out of TH say back to a US, Canadian bank account obviously depending on the amount and the bank you're with in TH.  As we know in TH there can be challenges taking money out of the country .

 

I dont think the differential would last forever.  I believe that the more BTC Crypto currencies develop buying and selling becomes easier and more mainstream I would imagine not matter wherein the world you live and buy coins the prices become more unified.

 

 

[suzannegoh]

Nothing - thats they beauty of BTC, ETH etc etc is that it is borderless to trade.  The only problem I could foresee is transferring the money out of TH say back to a US, Canadian bank account obviously depending on the amount and the bank you're with in TH.  As we know in TH there can be challenges taking money out of the country .  

I dont think the differential would last forever.  I believe that the more BTC Crypto currencies develop buying and selling becomes easier and more mainstream I would imagine not matter wherein the world you live and buy coins the prices become more unified.

 

 

 

 

That's the beauty of it if you are buying in the US but a downside if you can only buy in Thailand.

 

About your point about "challenges" related to the transferring money out of Thailand. Is the Thai government regulating crypto exchanges to cause cryptos to be more expensive here than elsewhere? It seems that if there was BTC price parity between the US and Thailand then an easy way to way around restrictions on transferring money out of Thailand would be to buy BTC in Thailand with Baht and then sell them in the US for Dollars. But with the price differential that exists now, doing that would be prohibitively expensive.

 

 

 

[shadowmaster1971]

2 minutes ago, suzannegoh said:

 

That's the beauty of it if you are buying in the US but a downside if you can only buy in Thailand.

 

Your point about "challenges" related to the transferring money out of Thailand. Is the Thai government regulating crypto exchanges to cause cryptos to be more expensive here than elsewhere? It seems that if there was BTC price parity between the US and Thailand then an easy way to way around restrictions on transferring money out of Thailand would be to buy BTC in Thailand with Baht and then sell them in the US for Dollars. But with the price differential that exists now, doing that would be prohibitively expensive.

 

As far as I am aware there is no restrictions on trading crypto in Thailand.

 

Yes true if buying BTC in TH right now and then transfer to US to sell today then yes lose money.  But it does allow you to get your money out of TH easily .

 

But equally if you bought BTC in TH today, who knows end of next week the US price of BTC could increase above your TH price (you bought at initially ) and you could profit  in the US.

 

 

 

 

 

[JimmyJ]

On 1/19/2018 at 7:55 PM, Toshiba66 said:

USA and Canada are really having issues with this whole crypto thing. Some companies are shutting down ops there.

I don't recall reading of any crypto companies shutting down in those countries due to those countries having crypto issues.

 

Mining has been moving to the state of Washington and to Canada.

 

What companies have shut down due to US and/or Canadian issues?

Edited January 23, 2018 by JimmyJ

[Toshiba66]

1 hour ago, JimmyJ said:

I don't recall reading of any crypto companies shutting down in those countries due to those countries having crypto issues.

 

Mining has been moving to the state of Washington and to Canada.

 

What companies have shut down due to US and/or Canadian issues?

USI - Tech and another but not sure of the name, maybe bitconnex??? Sorry, really not sure.

[JimmyJ]

9 minutes ago, Toshiba66 said:

USI - Tech and another but not sure of the name, maybe bitconnex??? Sorry, really not sure.

Bitconnect was an actual Ponzi - a term which is generally misused -  and a very obvious one - you "loan" them your BTC and they pay you 1% interest PER DAY.

They were shut down by 2 states for being a scam, and now have folded.

USI Tech seems to have been connected with them in some way.

 

This is consumer affairs. It's not related to USA and Canada crypto regulation.

 

Bitconnect did have highly professional marketing however - who could possibly have guessed it was a scam based on this:

 

"Proof That BitConnect Is NOT A Scam [All Evidence So Far]"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbR1SXIje1U&feature=share

 

 

[Allen Ginsing]

On 12/01/2018 at 8:57 PM, davidst01 said:

I sent 1 btc there and traded it into their kucoin KCS coin. Now I earn 6% for nothing and can trade all the alts.

Any link? Are you saying you get 6% interest forever?

[Toshiba66]

58 minutes ago, JimmyJ said:

Bitconnect was an actual Ponzi - a term which is generally misused -  and a very obvious one - you "loan" them your BTC and they pay you 1% interest PER DAY.

They were shut down by 2 states for being a scam, and now have folded.

USI Tech seems to have been connected with them in some way.

 

This is consumer affairs. It's not related to USA and Canada crypto regulation.

 

Bitconnect did have highly professional marketing however - who could possibly have guessed it was a scam based on this:

 

"Proof That BitConnect Is NOT A Scam [All Evidence So Far]"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbR1SXIje1U&feature=share

 

 

As far as I know there is no connection between the 2 companies. You will find at least one story stating these coins, ico's or companies investing or trading are ponzi schemes. I don't believe USI Tech is a ponzi as we all know who the directors are and they don't appear to be stupid. They are constantly meeting shareholders in person.  Over 1 million people invested with them now. But they did pull out of USA and Canada.

[Toshiba66]

3 hours ago, JimmyJ said:

Bitconnect was an actual Ponzi - a term which is generally misused -  and a very obvious one - you "loan" them your BTC and they pay you 1% interest PER DAY.

They were shut down by 2 states for being a scam, and now have folded.

USI Tech seems to have been connected with them in some way.

 

This is consumer affairs. It's not related to USA and Canada crypto regulation.

 

Bitconnect did have highly professional marketing however - who could possibly have guessed it was a scam based on this:

 

"Proof That BitConnect Is NOT A Scam [All Evidence So Far]"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbR1SXIje1U&feature=share

 

 

USI-Tech just announced they are going back in to USA and Canada.  Sounds like no one that did the right thing will lose any money. Good news for those investors there.