Buying Bitcoin in Thailand, difficult?

[Confuscious]

I have 800,000 baht stached in a bank account for Visa purposes.
Besides that amount, I also have some personal things (car, etc.) which are also add some valuta.

If I would leave Thailand, I have read the terrible nightmares about getting money out of Thailand.

As far as I did read about Bitcoins, it seems that they are not possesed by a bank account and one can access their Bitcoins from everywhere in the world by Internet.

To avoid all these hassles in getting my funds back, it would be interesting if I could change my funds to Bitcoins.

Also (as far as I understand the Bitcoin saga), if I die, my siblings can heritate my funds directly without passing the taxman (65% tax on heritage in my country).

Am I right?
Can Bitcoins be purchased in Thailand?
Which bank offers buying Bitcoins?
How does buying Bitcoins works?

TIA

[Katipo]

There are only a few avenues through which you can buy Crypto via a Thai bank account. Satang Pro and Bit Krub being two. To the best of my knowledge these platforms do not allow you to withdraw funds to a foreign bank account. In summary, money laundering and too many people doing what you want to do mean the regulations in place are very strict.

[dannyol]

So how does one get 800K baht out of the country???  I read that cash taken out by air is limited to 10K (baht, dollars, Euros?)

[userabcd]

1 hour ago, dannyol said:

So how does one get 800K baht out of the country???  I read that cash taken out by air is limited to 10K (baht, dollars, Euros?)

You show tax payments on money earned in the country legally under a work permit with salary slips, bank deposits.

 

You could show foreign bank account proof that the money was transferred from abroad into Thailand and the local bank account deposit correlating with the foreign  transfer. Go to the bank and ask them to transfer by swift the money back to your foreign bank account.

[sdshaman]

When you purchase crypto you have to store your purchase in a crypto wallet. From that wallet you can make transfers to other wallets. This is the process in a nutshell, and I have no experience transferring out of Thailand, or purchasing from a Thai bank. I do believe that if you used your "visa deposit" to purchase crypto that is would no longer be held for your visa. I would consult with your bank and ask them if there will be any problems making crypto purchases.

 

Coinbase is an app that makes it easy to purchase crypto. You will need the banks routing number and your account number. Not sure if it supports Thai banks, but it's worth a try! If you use this link and make a purchase, they will give you $10USD worth of Bitcoin.

coinbase.com/join/bachar_37o?src=android-link

 

In the mean-time you can mine "PI" crypto on your phone. It's an easy process and doesn't use up your phones resources.

https://minepi.com/Jthunder 

You need to be invited to the app to use it, use Jthunder as your invitation code

[dutchberliner]

The first thing you should do is buy a hardware wallet to protect yourself from hackers etc. a hardware wallet gives you total control over your bitcoin enabling all the things you plan to do with it.

trezor.io is the most reputable one. They cost about $60. 

 

To stay under the radar you could use multiple buying venues.

You can buy some bitcoin for cash at bitcoin meetups. There is also a lot of people there that can help you out with your questions face to face. https://www.meetup.com/Bangkok-Satoshi-Square/

 

Below are peer to peer networks for buying and selling bitcoin

https://paxful.com/buy/bitcoin/thailand

https://localbitcoins.com/country/TH

https://bisq.network/

https://localcryptos.com/Bitcoin/Thailand

 

There are currently 7 licensed exchanges in Thailand. They should all allow withdrawal of your bitcoin. you should double check this though and stay away from any exchange that does not allow you to withdraw your bitcoin to your trezor hardware wallet.

https://news.bitcoin.com/thailand-licensed-13-cryptocurrency-service-providers/

 

Buying bitcoin now is a good idea. this year will see the first US based bitcoin ETF, Tesla will probably start a bitcoin mining operation and major exchanges are rolling out the lightning network. All these events are likely to pump the bitcoin price much much higher.

 

 

[Bigz]

9 minutes ago, dutchberliner said:

The first thing you should do is buy a hardware wallet to protect yourself from hackers etc. a hardware wallet gives you total control over your bitcoin enabling all the things you plan to do with it.

trezor.io is the most reputable one. They cost about $60. 

 

To stay under the radar you could use multiple buying venues.

You can buy some bitcoin for cash at bitcoin meetups. There is also a lot of people there that can help you out with your questions face to face. https://www.meetup.com/Bangkok-Satoshi-Square/

 

Below are peer to peer networks for buying and selling bitcoin

https://paxful.com/buy/bitcoin/thailand

https://localbitcoins.com/country/TH

https://bisq.network/

https://localcryptos.com/Bitcoin/Thailand

 

There are currently 7 licensed exchanges in Thailand. They should all allow withdrawal of your bitcoin. you should double check this though and stay away from any exchange that does not allow you to withdraw your bitcoin to your trezor hardware wallet.

https://news.bitcoin.com/thailand-licensed-13-cryptocurrency-service-providers/

 

Buying bitcoin now is a good idea. this year will see the first US based bitcoin ETF, Tesla will probably start a bitcoin mining operation and major exchanges are rolling out the lightning network. All these events are likely to pump the bitcoin price much much higher.

 

 

Sorry if it's a dumb question (i have 0 experience with btc) Can I purchase btc from other countries using a vpn? Or you stuck with the Thai exchanges while in Thailand?

[TigerandDog]

4 hours ago, Katipo said:

There are only a few avenues through which you can buy Crypto via a Thai bank account. Satang Pro and Bit Krub being two. To the best of my knowledge these platforms do not allow you to withdraw funds to a foreign bank account. In summary, money laundering and too many people doing what you want to do mean the regulations in place are very strict.

Bitkub was shut down in late January by the SEC for new registrations. To date Bitkub is still not accepting new registrations. Satang is open to new registrations, and you are correct about not being able to withdraw to a foreign bank account. Even for deposits to fund your account you must have a Thai bank account. Also your purchases/investments are taxed ( income & VAT ) when coins are purchased & when they are sold and a profit is made.  So you are double taxed. I learnt this when I first invested with Satang and again when I sold & took profit. You will only receive the nett value, after income tax & VAT has been automatically deducted, credited to your wallet for withdrawal.

[TigerandDog]

1 hour ago, Bigz said:

Sorry if it's a dumb question (i have 0 experience with btc) Can I purchase btc from other countries using a vpn? Or you stuck with the Thai exchanges while in Thailand?

you can use some overseas exchanges, without a VPN, but the difficulty with this is if your funds are coming from a Thai bank account it's not that easy to remit the funds to your investment account. I initially tried to send money to an account I opened with eToro, and the only way I could fund the account was by wire transfer with Western Union. However, I had to go to 3 different banks that were WU agents before I could remit. The first 2 said it was illegal to remit funds overseas to invest, whether it be the stock market, foreign currency or crypto as the Thai Govt & BOT considered it to be a form of gambling. So i had to be a little bit inventive with the reason for the funds transfer.

[Bigz]

2 minutes ago, TigerandDog said:

you can use some overseas exchanges, without a VPN, but the difficulty with this is if your funds are coming from a Thai bank account it's not that easy to remit the funds to your investment account. I initially tried to send money to an account I opened with eToro, and the only way I could fund the account was by wire transfer with Western Union. However, I had to go to 3 different banks that were WU agents before I could remit. The first 2 said it was illegal to remit funds overseas to invest, whether it be the stock market, foreign currency or crypto as the Thai Govt & BOT considered it to be a form of gambling. So i had to be a little bit inventive with the reason for the funds transfer.

Thanks for that. I get it now. 

[karunasup]

depends of which country you have to pay taxes?

You can try peer to peer crypto exchanges?  Most other exchanges will do a KYC and AML verification, and even source of funds verification. So, ideally, if can transfer from THailand to your bank account in that country, you could show source of funds, verify as per AML rules

[khunPer]

7 hours ago, dannyol said:

So how does one get 800K baht out of the country???  I read that cash taken out by air is limited to 10K (baht, dollars, Euros?)

To my knowledge you can bring up to 70,000 baht out in cash, plus an amount in foreign currency, and you can transfer up to an amount equal to US$20,000, which might even be raised to US$50,000 now; i.e. from around 600,000 baht up to 1.5 million baht, and you can do more than one transfer.

 

By the way, in principle bitcoin gains are income taxable in many, if not most, countries, and also in heritage taxable, but some folks might suffers from dementia and forget their existence.

[Freddy42OZ]

20 hours ago, Katipo said:

There are only a few avenues through which you can buy Crypto via a Thai bank account. Satang Pro and Bit Krub being two. To the best of my knowledge these platforms do not allow you to withdraw funds to a foreign bank account. In summary, money laundering and too many people doing what you want to do mean the regulations in place are very strict.

 

You don't withdraw funds to a foreign bank account.  

You open a trading account in Thailand (Bitkub is good but they are not accepting new accounts at the moment).  
You purchase Bitcoin using that account.
You transfer the Bitcoin to your own crypto wallet (exodus is an easy one to use on your phone and computer)
You leave Thailand.

You open a trading account in any other country you have banking facilities.
You sell the Bitcoins on that platform as needed and withdraw cash out as needed. 


 

[Freddy42OZ]

17 hours ago, Bigz said:

Sorry if it's a dumb question (i have 0 experience with btc) Can I purchase btc from other countries using a vpn? Or you stuck with the Thai exchanges while in Thailand?

 

There are no dumb questions. Only dumb people who don't want to learn.

You can in theory purchase cryptos in any country, the issue however is where are the funds coming from.  There are places that will let you buy with credit cards but the fees are quite high, then again given the value of BTC I would probably consider that if I had to. 

You can even convert the coins to funds on a virtual visa card or onto an ATM card which allows you to spend the money as you need it.   Again these do incur some extra fees so only really an option if you have so much money that a few % in fees doesn't bother you or you are just really desperate to get at the cash. 

You can now buy and sell crypto with PayPal.  That might be an option for you   

https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/crypto

Coinbase and Binance (two very large well known crypto exchanges) both accept credit cards 

You can also buy and sell bitcoin globally using localbitcoins.com      This could be a good option if you know what you are doing.


Hope that helps

 

[Bigz]

28 minutes ago, Freddy42OZ said:

 

There are no dumb questions. Only dumb people who don't want to learn.

You can in theory purchase cryptos in any country, the issue however is where are the funds coming from.  There are places that will let you buy with credit cards but the fees are quite high, then again given the value of BTC I would probably consider that if I had to. 

You can even convert the coins to funds on a virtual visa card or onto an ATM card which allows you to spend the money as you need it.   Again these do incur some extra fees so only really an option if you have so much money that a few % in fees doesn't bother you or you are just really desperate to get at the cash. 

You can now buy and sell crypto with PayPal.  That might be an option for you   

https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/crypto

Coinbase and Binance (two very large well known crypto exchanges) both accept credit cards 

You can also buy and sell bitcoin globally using localbitcoins.com      This could be a good option if you know what you are doing.


Hope that helps

 

Thanks for the detailed info. Very useful. 

[Farang123]

On 3/26/2021 at 10:11 AM, Freddy42OZ said:

 

There are no dumb questions. Only dumb people who don't want to learn.

You can in theory purchase cryptos in any country, the issue however is where are the funds coming from.  There are places that will let you buy with credit cards but the fees are quite high, then again given the value of BTC I would probably consider that if I had to. 

You can even convert the coins to funds on a virtual visa card or onto an ATM card which allows you to spend the money as you need it.   Again these do incur some extra fees so only really an option if you have so much money that a few % in fees doesn't bother you or you are just really desperate to get at the cash. 

You can now buy and sell crypto with PayPal.  That might be an option for you   

https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/crypto

Coinbase and Binance (two very large well known crypto exchanges) both accept credit cards 

You can also buy and sell bitcoin globally using localbitcoins.com      This could be a good option if you know what you are doing.


Hope that helps

 

Can you buy bitcoin using Coinbase from Thailand?  I was just reading it's not available here.  I'm a newbie looking to buy some bitcoin a.s.a.p.  I have a coins.ph account but I haven't deposited any money into it as I read a lot of bad things about the company.  I opened up the account a few years back at someone's recommendation but never bought anything.

[suzannegoh]

On 3/25/2021 at 4:49 PM, Bigz said:

Sorry if it's a dumb question (i have 0 experience with btc) Can I purchase btc from other countries using a vpn? Or you stuck with the Thai exchanges while in Thailand?

You might be able to but there's some risk that if the exchange figures out that you aren't a resident of the country in which they operate that they might lock you out of your account.

[suzannegoh]

On 3/26/2021 at 10:11 AM, Freddy42OZ said:

You can now buy and sell crypto with PayPal.  That might be an option for you   

https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/crypto

 

Be careful with that option.  Paypal is notorious for locking people out of their accounts and you can't transfer cryptos that you purchase from Paypal out of your Paypal account.  Presently Paypal will only sell cryptos to you if you are a US resident and if they figure out that you're not you might have problems.

[Neeranam]

I use SatangPro and Bitkub.

 

I am not buying BTC now but Elrond. There is a great wallet here which looks good

 

https://maiar.com/

[bravo19]

Go to a bitcoin ATM in Thailand and buy bitcoin by cash.

[ward]

any of these in Bangkok?