This post might be interesting to non U.S folk living in Thailand.

Im registered with Kraken crypto exchange for ages now. I recently logged into the platform and noticed they have a new investment category....

You can basically buy tokenized equity xStock of Nvidia, Amazon, Alphabet, Apple and Microsoft. What you're holding - When you purchase an asset like NVDAx on Kraken, you're purchasing a tokenized equity (xStock) a blockchain-based token that is backed 1:1 by the underlying equity and issued by Backed Assets. These tokens provide price exposure to the underlying stock and any dividends are automatically reinvested.

Kraken does not withhold taxes on tokenized equities mentioned above. Therefore if one buys and holds for longterm and makes gains and sells its up to the person to file taxes in ones country where they have tax residency.

One can buy with BTC or USDC. From thailand:

1. fund thb fiat to your thai crypto exchange

2. buy btc or usdc

3. send to your wallet at Kraken

4. buy the xStock

Clearly the issue is the gains or losses one is exposed to with fluctuations in the btc price that you buy or sell for when transacting with this xStock- in addition to the risks associated with buying these overpriced U.S equities.

What are your thoughts on this investment option.

Actually I would like to invest in the S&P500 ETF but cant find one in Thailand

1 hour ago, advancebooking said:

Actually I would like to invest in the S&P500 ETF but cant find one in Thailand

Buy DRs (Depositary Receipts) using any local Thai brokerage account in THB, with no foreign tax reporting required.

Pros: DRs are legally treated exactly like Thai stocks. Capital gains are 100% tax-exempt under local exchange rules. Dividends face a standard 10% local withholding tax. DRs trade during Thai daytime hours.

Cons: DRs can suffer from wider bid-ask spreads due to lower local volume. DRs wrap the underlying ETF fee with local management layers, slightly increasing tracking drag. Local brokers charging for DRs use standard Thai equity fees. DR market makers build a currency spread directly into the THB ticker price.

S&P500 DRs: SP50001, SP500US80, SP500US19

5 minutes ago, Yumthai said:

Buy DRs (Depositary Receipts) using any local Thai brokerage account in THB, with no foreign tax reporting required.

Pros: DRs are legally treated exactly like Thai stocks. Capital gains are 100% tax-exempt under local exchange rules. Dividends face a standard 10% local withholding tax. DRs trade during Thai daytime hours.

Cons: DRs can suffer from wider bid-ask spreads due to lower local volume. DRs wrap the underlying ETF fee with local management layers, slightly increasing tracking drag. Local brokers charging for DRs use standard Thai equity fees. DR market makers build a currency spread directly into the THB ticker price.

S&P500 DRs: SP50001, SP500US80, SP500US19

thanks for the info

the wife and I have bank accounts with most of the retails banks in thailand. Can it be done via any of the retails banks or must I find a thai brokerage account? Can you recommend a few options for thai brokerage accounts if I cant do it via retail bank platforms. thanks

17 minutes ago, Yumthai said:

Buy DRs (Depositary Receipts) using any local Thai brokerage account in THB, with no foreign tax reporting required.

Pros: DRs are legally treated exactly like Thai stocks. Capital gains are 100% tax-exempt under local exchange rules. Dividends face a standard 10% local withholding tax. DRs trade during Thai daytime hours.

Cons: DRs can suffer from wider bid-ask spreads due to lower local volume. DRs wrap the underlying ETF fee with local management layers, slightly increasing tracking drag. Local brokers charging for DRs use standard Thai equity fees. DR market makers build a currency spread directly into the THB ticker price.

S&P500 DRs: SP50001, SP500US80, SP500US19

May I ask if you have ever heard of 'Interactive Brokers'. A few comments are made about them online. But I cant confirm the legitimacy of this company. Do you know anything about them?

16 minutes ago, advancebooking said:

Can it be done via any of the retails banks or must I find a thai brokerage account?

You should be able to buy on any major Thai banking apps such as InnovestX (SCB), K-Cyber Trading (Kasikorn), Bualuang Securities (Bangkok Bank), or Krungthai Zmico.

7 minutes ago, advancebooking said:

May I ask if you have ever heard of 'Interactive Brokers'.

IBKR (Interactive Brokers) is certainly one of the best and most cost-efficient international brokers. However, as it's offshore, tax on remittances (if any) needs to be managed.

12 hours ago, advancebooking said:

This post might be interesting to non U.S folk living in Thailand.

Im registered with Kraken crypto exchange for ages now. I recently logged into the platform and noticed they have a new investment category....

You can basically buy tokenized equity xStock of Nvidia, Amazon, Alphabet, Apple and Microsoft. What you're holding - When you purchase an asset like NVDAx on Kraken, you're purchasing a tokenized equity (xStock) a blockchain-based token that is backed 1:1 by the underlying equity and issued by Backed Assets. These tokens provide price exposure to the underlying stock and any dividends are automatically reinvested.

Kraken does not withhold taxes on tokenized equities mentioned above. Therefore if one buys and holds for longterm and makes gains and sells its up to the person to file taxes in ones country where they have tax residency.

One can buy with BTC or USDC. From thailand:

1. fund thb fiat to your thai crypto exchange

2. buy btc or usdc

3. send to your wallet at Kraken

4. buy the xStock

Clearly the issue is the gains or losses one is exposed to with fluctuations in the btc price that you buy or sell for when transacting with this xStock- in addition to the risks associated with buying these overpriced U.S equities.

What are your thoughts on this investment option.

Actually I would like to invest in the S&P500 ETF but cant find one in Thailand

I've been using it but the number of companies available are quite limited and on many of them the volume is real low and the orderbooks so thin on some of them they are effectively illiquid.

Edited July 2Jul 2 by ukrules

1 hour ago, ukrules said:

I've been using it but the number of companies available are quite limited and on many of them the volume is real low and the orderbooks so thin on some of them they are effectively illiquid.

So are you saying its easy to buy but hard to sell due to this issue?

Aren't you a bit late to the party?

If you're serious about long-term investing and trading, can pass international brokers KYC, and don't mind wiring funds (cheap these days with Wise), traditional brokers are safer, cheaper, more liquid and legally clearer. xStocks is an alternative and could catch on in time but as traditional brokers offer more choices, 24 hours trading and leverage with derivatives and 0DTE trading the appeal of xStocks might not be as great.

5 hours ago, Digitalbanana said:

If you're serious about long-term investing and trading, can pass international brokers KYC, and don't mind wiring funds (cheap these days with Wise), traditional brokers are safer, cheaper, more liquid and legally clearer. xStocks is an alternative and could catch on in time but as traditional brokers offer more choices, 24 hours trading and leverage with derivatives and 0DTE trading the appeal of xStocks might not be as great.

which one do you recommend?

5 hours ago, Caldera said:

Aren't you a bit late to the party?

I didn't imply that I would be buying right now. Doing research now and waiting for the market to tank.. depending on what happens with Iran and interest rates going up in the U.S and inflation going up. Waiting for a correction in the markets but cashed up and ready.

6 hours ago, advancebooking said:

So are you saying its easy to buy but hard to sell due to this issue?

Only on some of the companies that are traded - it's both hard to buy and hard to sell as nobody't using it for the less hyped companies.

On the big popular ones there's plenty of demand but some of them are illiquid if you scroll down to the end of the list.

I've been watching this for a while now and using it a bit.

Kraken didn't originally operate this company themselves but they took over it around December 2025 as far as I can tell.

Also right now it's not open to many markets, for example they're not allowed to sell these securities to Americans - their main customer base - at the moment.

I think that's the key - they're preparing for rule changes which will allow them to do so - and they're ready to go if / when this change happens.

But if you want to trade the big companies then you can easily buy or sell plenty of them. Like TSLA for example.

Edited July 2Jul 2 by ukrules

6 hours ago, Caldera said:

Aren't you a bit late to the party?

Obviously part of the buy high, sell low brigade. After all, he is a crypto investor gambler.

5 hours ago, gargamon said:

Obviously part of the buy high, sell low brigade. After all, he is a crypto investor gambler.

You have no idea what you are talking about.

Interactive brokers is excellent I've had accounts with them for many years.

They are a bit picky about who they let set up accounts as for the most part they expect their clients to be have a tax number for the country they are a resident of and paying tax in .

I'm not sure if they are still doing this but for awhile you couldn't set up an account from Thailand.And if you live in Viet Nam you can't access them online with out using a VPN.

That's a Viet namese based regulation

I set up a trading account with Bualuang Securities very easily.Big surprise after how hard it is to just have a Bank account with Bangkok bank these days.But you do need an personal bank account with them first .

47 minutes ago, bwanajohn said:

Interactive brokers is excellent I've had accounts with them for many years.

They are a bit picky about who they let set up accounts as for the most part they expect their clients to be have a tax number for the country they are a resident of and paying tax in .

I'm not sure if they are still doing this but for awhile you couldn't set up an account from Thailand.And if you live in Viet Nam you can't access them online with out using a VPN.

That's a Viet namese based regulation

so you dont have to pay any withholding taxes etc or any american taxes?

no issues at all. Have you ever tried to sell and fund back to thb fiat?

45 minutes ago, bwanajohn said:

I set up a trading account with Bualuang Securities very easily.Big surprise after how hard it is to just have a Bank account with Bangkok bank these days.But you do need an personal bank account with them first .

Banking

can you invest in S&P500 ETF via this platform? or buy U.S tech stocks on nasdaq?

On 7/1/2026 at 9:38 AM, Yumthai said:

Pros: DRs are legally treated exactly like Thai stocks. Capital gains are 100% tax-exempt under local exchange rules.

I didn't know this.

So you can basically daytrade and you don't need to report any income except dividents which would be taxed automatically anyway?

Or you could just buy the stocks, lol

13 minutes ago, advancebooking said:

so you dont have to pay any withholding taxes etc or any american taxes?

no issues at all. Have you ever tried to sell and fund back to thb fiat?

There are many ways to trade these days, but the thread title mentions magnificent seven USD based stocks, so you can set up an international broker account with a Thai address, send them USD to fund the account and trade in USD. If you are not an American and live in Thailand you complete a foreign alien declaration W8-BEN form that avoids taxes on profits, but withholding taxes on any dividend payouts are instantly applied and only refunded by some brokers annually. I notice E*Trade refunds my WHT annually but my IBKR does not seem to.

You could open a Schwab One International account. You do not need to be a US citizen and Thailand is on the approved countries list.

11 hours ago, Celsius said:

So you can basically daytrade and you don't need to report any income except dividents which would be taxed automatically anyway?

Yes. However need to be aware that:

- There's a limited ticker selection.

- Possible tracking errors.

- Higher management fees.

- Some DRs suffer from low trading volumes on the SET.

- US dividends are hit with a double layer of WHT (15% US first, then 10% Thai final tax) resulting in an effective tax rate of 23.5%.

- US estate tax applying to Thai DRs is a grey area (some argue that a aggressive IRS audit could "look through" the Thai shell wrapper and could re-qualify the Thai investor as the ultimate beneficial owner of US corporate stock).