ethnews.com
The Bangkok Post reports that the country's national bourse, the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET), will apply for a digital asset operating license. If the Thailand Ministry of Finance grants SET's request, it would have a clear path to open a licensed digital asset exchange at some point in 2019.
According to the Post, if successful, it would "be one of a few global stock exchanges to set up a digital asset exchange separately from a stock exchange." Bitkub Group, one of four cryptocurrency exchanges given a digital asset business license by Thailand's finance ministry last week, is interested in helping SET make the digital asset exchange a reality.
Indeed, according to Pattera Dilokrungthirapop, vice-chair of SET's board of governors and chair of the Association of Securities Companies, the recent approvals – the first in the Southeast Asian country – have likely bolstered SET's confidence that there is a need for a digital asset exchange. And several companies that applied for licenses, among them the exchange Cash2Coins, are in the process of reapplying for licensure. The Post quotes Pattera as saying, "Securities firms are currently waiting for the SET to apply for a license. For us, digital assets are expected to grow in the future as investors gain more understanding of this asset class."
Even with a go-ahead from the Ministry of Finance, any SET-sponsored exchange would be regulated by the country's Securities and Exchange Commission.
Other countries' stock exchanges have broadcast their plans to dive into digital asset trading, among them the Boerse Stuttgart in Germany, SIX Swiss Exchange, and the Jamaican Stock Exchange. Stateside, the Intercontinental Exchange, which owns the New York Stock Exchange, announced last summer its intention to build a digital futures exchange, Bakkt. Just this week Bakkt reported its first acquisition, for "certain assets of Rosenthal Collins Group."