Thailand Targets March 2027 for Baht Stablecoin Rules, Pauses New Money Changer Applications

One baht per token, with rules planned for March 2027

The Bank of Thailand plans to announce rules for a baht stablecoin in March 2027, proposing full bank deposit backing, redemption at one baht per token within one business day, and identity checks for users. Alongside that digital payment framework, it will suspend applications from new money changer businesses during 2027 while raising standards for existing operators.

The stablecoin consultation runs from October 19 to November 17, 2026, according to the central bank's official consultation notice. The initial window ended on October 28 before being extended from 10 days to 30 days. Feedback will inform draft rules, which the bank plans to put through another public consultation.

The proposed THB stablecoin would be issued by licensed businesses under central bank supervision. Its value would be tied to the baht at a ratio of one to one. The bank is considering allowing roughly two issuers initially, while placing no numerical ceiling on wallet providers that meet its requirements.

For people planning a currency exchange business, the nearest practical deadline is December 1 to 30, 2026. Applications submitted during that period can be considered under the existing criteria for businesses intending to start in 2027. Applications under new standards are scheduled to begin in 2028.

The two initiatives address different needs: creating a regulated payment instrument for digital transactions, and strengthening controls at licensed currency exchange businesses. Both put responsibility on identifiable operators that regulators can supervise.

What holders would receive, and how they could cash out

A stablecoin is a digital token designed to keep a steady value against a reference asset, in this case the Thai baht. Under the proposal, an issuer creating one billion tokens would need one billion baht in backing. The reserves would be kept available to support redemption rather than reused elsewhere.

The initial reserve model calls for 100% backing through bank deposits, spread across multiple banks. Issuers would have to disclose the number of tokens and the assets supporting them every day, with an external auditor checking the arrangements at least annually.

Holders would have a right to redeem tokens with the issuer at one baht each within one business day. Issuers would be prohibited from paying interest or returns to holders. The product is being designed as a means of holding and moving money, with a fixed redemption value rather than an investment return.

A holder selling through a digital asset marketplace could receive a market price different from one baht. Someone seeking the proposed fixed redemption rate would therefore need to use the issuer's redemption route, rather than assume every trading venue would offer the same price.

The proposed controls also cover the issuer's ability to keep operating during trouble. Applicants would need enough funding to operate without revenue for at least six months, alongside plans for heavy redemption demand, technology failures, business continuity and an orderly closure that protects users.

A small group of issuers, competing wallet services

The Bank of Thailand proposes separating the businesses that create and redeem tokens from those that provide customer wallets. An issuer would manage token supply, redemption and reserves. A wallet provider would store tokens for customers and provide transfers, payments and exchange services.

The central bank describes this as an open market structure. Qualified wallet companies could compete to serve customers using the same regulated payment instrument, instead of each business having to create its own coin and reserve system.

Limiting issuers at the start is intended to keep supervision manageable and avoid splitting users and available funds across too many coins. Wallet licence applications would open in rounds, with no cap on the number of successful applicants.

Wallet providers would have to keep customer tokens separate from company assets and could not use those tokens for other purposes. They would also need transaction records that can be checked later, complaint procedures and arrangements to help customers resolve problems.

The proposed division gives customers two different points of protection: the issuer is responsible for the money behind the token, while the wallet company is responsible for safeguarding and handling the customer's holdings.

Verified wallets and powers to stop illegal transactions

Users would access the system through wallets that verify customer identity. Transfers would be permitted between wallets that have passed those checks, supported by an approved list of eligible wallets.

Operators would also need mechanisms to freeze, seize or destroy tokens when unlawful activity is detected. Destroying a token, often called burning, removes it from circulation. These capabilities would allow action against identified holdings rather than leaving every transfer beyond the operator's control.

Wallet providers would be required to keep records that allow transactions to be traced and would be barred from connecting to overseas exchanges outside the supervision of Thailand's Securities and Exchange Commission.

The central bank's consultation groups its approach into three areas: managing risks in normal conditions and crises; allowing connections with existing payment systems and other forms of digital money; and supporting services that reduce costs, speed up transactions or enable useful new functions.

Those requirements connect the technology to practical responsibilities. A service would need to demonstrate that it can protect customer assets, handle redemptions and monitor transactions while still working with other approved services.

What the token could do beyond ordinary transfers

The Bank of Thailand says Thailand already has an efficient, inexpensive retail payment system in PromptPay. Its proposal gives the stablecoin a supporting role alongside that infrastructure, particularly for transactions involving assets represented by digital tokens.

One initial use described by the bank is a place for digital asset traders to keep funds when they are not ready to transfer money back to a bank account. Wider possibilities include payments, transfers between systems and transactions that execute automatically when agreed conditions are met.

Governor Vitai Ratanakorn has described the project as an effort to improve the basic machinery through which money moves and transactions are completed.

"The primary objective of a baht stablecoin is to strengthen Thailand's financial infrastructure by improving the efficiency of the country's payment and settlement systems while reducing transaction costs," said Mr Vitai.

The proposal discusses three useful technical features. Programmability lets a payment happen once a specified condition is satisfied. Continuous availability allows token transactions around the clock. Atomic settlement makes payment and delivery of a digital asset happen together, reducing the risk that one party pays while the other fails to deliver.

Token transfers operating at all hours would sit alongside the proposed redemption deadline of one business day. Customers would need to account for that difference when deciding how quickly they require money in a bank account.

Vitai previously described an initial phase limited to settlement by financial institutions. The later consultation outlines a broader structure involving customer wallets and possible retail uses. The final rules and implementation stages have yet to determine which activities will open first.

Existing trials provide a testing ground

The stablecoin proposal builds on the Bank of Thailand's Programmable Payment Project, introduced in 2024. Baker McKenzie's January 2026 legal briefing records an expansion of the testing programme on December 24, 2025, with applications accepted from that date and no submission deadline specified.

The expanded programme allows regulated financial institutions, financial technology companies and other approved entities to participate. Testing periods are determined individually and can exceed the previous limit of one year.

The briefing describes safeguards already used in the trials: one digital unit must equal one baht; matching reserves must sit in a separate account at a licensed financial institution; those reserves cannot be used for other purposes; and holders must have redemption rights.

Eight operators have participated in the project, with three having advanced to a second testing phase as of April 2026. TrueMoney's asset tokenisation payment trial runs from June to December 2026. Bitkub Blockchain Technology is testing escrow payments, asset tokenisation payments and connections between blockchain systems from April 2026 to March 2027. Om Platform's escrow trial runs from April to December 2026.

Escrow holds a payment until agreed requirements are met. In a digital transaction, that could mean releasing money only when the promised asset is delivered. The trials give operators a controlled setting to test those arrangements before offering services more widely.

Different forms of digital money carry different rights

The central bank's consultation places THB stablecoins alongside tokenised deposits and tokenised electronic money. All can use distributed ledger technology, a system in which transaction records are shared across a network. Their legal structures and the responsibilities of their providers differ.

A tokenised deposit represents money held as a bank deposit, with the bank retaining its obligations to the depositor. A stablecoin under the proposed model would instead rely on a licensed issuer's reserve and redemption arrangements, with separate businesses potentially providing the wallets.

Baker McKenzie's January briefing says Thailand had no dedicated tokenised deposit regulation at that point. It anticipated that existing banking rules would apply, including protection of up to one million baht per depositor per institution for eligible deposits. For the proposed stablecoin, the central protections described are full reserves, redemption rights, disclosures and supervision of issuers and wallets.

Thailand's work follows regional moves towards regulated stablecoins. Hong Kong granted its first two issuer licences on April 10, 2026, to HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong). Singapore's framework requires redemption at face value within five business days, compared with the one business day proposed in Thailand. Those figures concern the permitted redemption timetable in each framework.

Money changers face a pause and new standards

Pimphan Charoenkwan, the Bank of Thailand's assistant governor for financial markets, disclosed the money changer changes on November 5, 2026. The bank plans to improve standards among existing licensed operators first, while temporarily stopping applications from new businesses during 2027.

The aim is to prevent currency exchange businesses from supporting illegal activity and to match operating requirements to the risks each business presents. The bank plans to publish details of the new application criteria by December 2026.

Applicants seeking to begin business in 2027 can submit under the existing rules from December 1 to 30, 2026. They must provide all documents and evidence required by the public application manual and submit them to the central bank's headquarters or a regional office.

Applications under the revised framework are scheduled to resume in 2028, opening twice a year, in March and September. The announced pause concerns applications from new operators while supervision of existing businesses is upgraded.

The central bank has separately been working with the Securities and Exchange Commission to examine unusually high USDT trading volumes in Thailand. It describes the THB stablecoin project as payment development, while the USDT examination and money changer reforms address concerns about financial activity and illegal money flows.

The governor has put the informal economy at an amount equivalent to 48% of GDP, comprising activity equivalent to 35% of GDP already captured in national output figures and grey economic activity equivalent to about 13% outside them. That breakdown helps explain the breadth of the bank's concern: informal activity extends beyond the portion it describes as grey.

The dates businesses and users need to follow

The next steps run across two regulatory programmes, with different deadlines for stablecoin feedback and currency exchange applications. The dates below use Gregorian years; Thai years 2569, 2570 and 2571 correspond to 2026, 2027 and 2028.

• October 19 to November 17, 2026: the extended public consultation on THB stablecoin regulatory principles.
• December 1 to 30, 2026: applications under existing money changer criteria for those seeking to begin operations in 2027.
• By December 2026: planned publication of new money changer application criteria.
• During 2027: temporary suspension of applications from new money changer businesses.
• March 2027: the central bank's target for announcing THB stablecoin rules.
• From 2028: money changer applications resume under new criteria, with rounds in March and September.

The stablecoin consultation follows Thailand's 2019 law on drafting legislation and evaluating its results. After considering responses on the principles, the bank plans another consultation on draft rules before completing the framework.

For prospective issuers and wallet companies, preparation centres on reserves, redemption systems, customer verification and asset protection. For prospective money changers, the immediate decision is whether to submit a complete application during December 2026 or seek entry under the new framework from 2028.

Key Points

• The Bank of Thailand targets March 2027 for THB stablecoin rules.
• The proposal requires full bank deposit backing and redemption at one baht per token within one business day.
• Issuer numbers would initially be limited, while qualified wallet providers could receive licences without a numerical cap.
• Wallets would verify users, safeguard customer assets and retain transaction records.
• New money changer applications will pause during 2027, with an application window under existing rules on December 1 to 30, 2026.
• Applications under new money changer standards are scheduled to open in March and September from 2028.