Thai central bank bans banks from cryptocurrencies

[Jonathan Fairfield]

BANGKOK, Feb 12 (Reuters) – Thailand’s central bank said on Monday it had asked financial institutions not to get involved in cryptocurrency transactions for fear of possible problems from the unregulated trading.

Banks are prohibited from investing or trading in cryptocurrency, offering cryptocurrency exchanges and creating platforms for cryptocurrency trading, the central bank’s governor, Veerathai Santiprabhob, said in a circular.

 

They are also banned from allowing clients to use credit cards to buy cryptocurrency, and from advising customers on investing or trading in cryptocurrency, the bank said.

 

The central bank said cryptocurrencies were not legal tender in Thailand and it was worried that they may be used in illegal activities such as money laundering or supporting terrorism. (Reporting by Kitiphong Thaichareon; Writing by Orathai Sriring; Editing by Robert Birsel)

 

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-02-13

[uli65]

Banks are prohibited, nothing about privat investors!  rubbish Reuters fake news.

just bought small amount on https://content.coins.co.th/ with my thai atm card.

[Neeranam]

I just bought some from bx..com through my Thai bank.

[prepress]

That means Banks can not directly buy or sell cryptocurrencies.

Trading with exchanges is not prohibited

[boomerangutang]

According to Wikileaks, below are 5 crypto currency exchanges which have tanked, with big losses for many who trusted them:

 

A friend of mine lost big time with two of them, Mt.Gox and BTC-e. He has no chance of recovering his accounts.  

 

• Buttercoin
• Mt. Gox
• BitInstant
• BTC-e
  OKCoin

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

On 2/13/2018 at 9:14 AM, uli65 said:

Banks are prohibited, nothing about privat investors!  rubbish Reuters fake news.

just bought small amount on https://content.coins.co.th/ with my thai atm card.

 

If you'd notice...

 

The article said banks were ordered to ban the use of credit cards for purchasing those items. It didn't say anything about debit/ATM cards.

 

The article didn't say anything about the central bank having any authority over what you or other private citizens may do -- only what the Thai banks can NOT do in support of that.

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

22 minutes ago, boomerangutang said:

According to Wikileaks, below are 5 crypto currency exchanges which have tanked, with big losses for many who trusted them:

 

A friend of mine lost big time with two of them, Mt.Gox and BTC-e. He has no chance of recovering his accounts.  

 

• Buttercoin
• Mt. Gox
• BitInstant
• BTC-e
  OKCoin

 Are you saying that occurred with some connection to the Thai central bank order, or just happened to occur for other reasons?

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

The one thing the article did NOT say is when the supposed order from the Thai Central Bank was supposed to take effect, e.g., be enforced by the various individual banks.

[prepress]

Banks and governments can not completely ban the use of cryptocurrency. They need to block the whole internet.

So all negative news is pushed up by the media to scare the people to get into cryptocurrency