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Jurisdictional snapshot · APAC
Updated 2026-07-30

Thailand

Wholesale-forward, retail-cautious: one of APAC's longest wholesale CBDC research programmes paired with a progressively tightened retail virtual-asset perimeter.

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Recent developments

3 on file

Key institutions

Named institutions appear as the tracker fills.

Thailand sits in an unusual spot among APAC tokenisation jurisdictions: the Bank of Thailand (BoT) ran one of the region's earliest wholesale CBDC research programmes in Project Inthanon from 2018, is a founding mBridge participant alongside the HKMA (Hong Kong Monetary Authority), CBUAE and PBoC, and inherited governance of mBridge when the BIS exited in late 2024. SEC Thailand has meanwhile tightened the retail virtual-asset perimeter under the Digital Asset Business Emergency Decree, and BoT has been visibly cautious on private THB stablecoin issuance. The net signal for tokenisation operators is asymmetric: the wholesale plumbing is among the most advanced in APAC, but the retail-distribution layer is harder to ship into than Singapore or Hong Kong. The most useful comparison is UAE, the other mBridge graduate, with a similar founding-central-bank role and a tokenisation story led from the central bank rather than the markets regulator.

Regulatory posture

Bank of Thailand owns the wholesale layer. The lineage runs from Project Inthanon Phases 1 to 3 (single-currency wholesale CBDC research starting 2018), into Project Inthanon-LionRock with the HKMA in 2019-2020, the first bilateral CBDC bridge in APAC, and from there into mBridge under the BIS Innovation Hub. mBridge graduated from BIS governance in October 2024, with HKMA, BoT, CBUAE and PBoC inheriting the governance stack. BoT also ran a retail CBDC pilot circa 2023-2024, and as of late 2025 the published posture leans toward a measured, infrastructure-first rollout rather than a full retail launch.

SEC Thailand owns the virtual-asset and digital-token perimeter under the Digital Asset Business Emergency Decree (B.E. 2561, 2018), licensing exchanges, brokers, dealers, fund managers, and custodians. The Decree also defines investment tokens and utility tokens as regulated categories, the route several Thai issuers have used for property-backed and infrastructure-backed offerings. SEC Thailand has been more active than BoT on retail rule changes, tightening stablecoin scope around 2022 and revising foreign-issuer access for VASPs (virtual asset service providers). The Ministry of Finance owns the tax framework and AMLO is the AML/CTF supervisor.

The wholesale-versus-retail asymmetry is the operative editorial point: BoT has stayed engaged with cross-border tokenisation infrastructure while SEC Thailand has been more receptive on institutional digital tokens than on retail distribution. THB stablecoin issuance has remained small, with both regulators cautious.

Active pilots

  • mBridge under post-graduation governance. Founding participant alongside HKMA, CBUAE and PBoC; BoT's current role and use-case set is the highest-value cross-border story for this jurisdiction.
  • Project San. BoT's tokenisation prototype: a wholesale settlement engine, EVM-compatible ledgers for tokenised private money and assets, and interoperability mechanisms.
  • BoT retail CBDC pilot (circa 2023-2024). Results pointed toward measured rollout rather than full launch; production status as of early 2026 is open.
  • SEC Thailand digital-asset framework. Investment-token offerings and the licensing perimeter under the Emergency Decree.

Open questions

  • Which central banks lead mBridge day-to-day post-graduation, and whether BoT's role has expanded or narrowed.
  • Whether Project San advances from prototype into a dated programme, and whether the HKMA proof of concept produced published findings.
  • Whether SEC Thailand opens institutional access to tokenised funds, mirroring the HK SFC moves on secondary trading of tokenised authorised products.
  • Whether BoT and SEC Thailand publish a clearer THB stablecoin issuance and access regime.
  • Whether Thailand joins a wholesale tokenisation workstream alongside mBridge, given the BIS-led continuation of Agorá.

Related

  • Stablecoin types for THB and the broader fiat-pegged perimeter.
  • Tokenisation, defined for the investment-token versus tokenised-fund distinction.
  • hong kong as the Inthanon-LionRock counterparty and mBridge co-governor.
  • japan for the contrast on retail virtual-asset posture.