The Thailand Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC for cryptocurrency trading, allowing these stablecoins to be listed on regulated exchanges in the country.

The SEC announced the approvals last week after gathering public feedback on proposed regulatory changes, which were finalized in February and are set to take effect on March 16.

Reports have highlighted increasing support in Thailand for legitimizing cryptocurrency use and encouraging stablecoin adoption as a way to boost domestic revenue.

This follows the introduction of a regulatory sandbox in August 2024, which allowed select service providers to experiment with cryptocurrencies.

With this approval, the stablecoins join five other cryptocurrencies already permitted for trading in Thailand, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Stellar Lumen, and those currently being tested for settlement by the Bank of Thailand.

In a March 10 announcement, Tether stated that the approval enables USDT to be used by digital asset businesses and function as a payment rail within the country.

Beyond their role in cryptocurrency trading, stablecoins are gaining recognition as an alternative to traditional remittances, particularly in emerging markets.

A December report by Chainalysis described stablecoins as a “transformative” tool for cross-border payments and remittances.

In regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa, using stablecoins for remittances has been found to be 60% cheaper than conventional methods.

According to venture capital firm a16z Crypto, 28.5 million unique stablecoin users completed over 600 million transactions in December alone.

Despite this, stablecoin transactions still represent only a small fraction of the 3.4 trillion transactions in the global payments industry.

Data from DefiLlama shows that the total circulating supply of stablecoins is currently valued at nearly $230 billion, with Tether’s USDT accounting for just over 63% of the market.

Sources:

https://cointelegraph.com/news/thailand-regulator-approves-usdt-stablecoin

https://www.sec.or.th/EN/Pages/News_Detail.aspx?SECID=11613&rand=113627

https://tether.io/news/thailands-regulator-recognizes-tethers-usdt-as-an-approved-cryptocurrency-in-major-step-for-digital-assets/

https://www.chainalysis.com/blog/stablecoins-most-popular-asset

https://a16zcrypto.com/posts/article/how-stablecoins-will-eat-payments/

https://defillama.com/stablecoins