Thailand’s central bank has launched targeted audits of high-volume stablecoin activity, focusing on USDT, as part of a broader campaign to disrupt money laundering, illicit finance and the country’s so-called “gray economy.”
The Bank of Thailand is coordinating with the Securities and Exchange Commission to trace and review large stablecoin transfers alongside cash transactions, currency-exchange activity and gold trading. Officials say the aim is to identify and halt suspicious flows into and out of regulated channels.
“The measures we are implementing are not short-term fixes; they require the continuous deployment of multiple parallel strategies,” Bank of Thailand Governor Vitai Ratanakorn said, underscoring that the effort will combine several regulatory and monitoring tools.
Authorities are especially concerned about the gray economy — largely cash-based activity that may originate from dubious sources, including scam call centers. While official totals for gray-market activity are unavailable, reported scam losses reached about 115 billion baht (roughly $3.4 billion) in 2025, with some 173 million scam calls and texts recorded that year.
Stablecoins such as USDT are attractive for moving large sums because they enable near-instant cross-border settlement. The new audits will therefore include suspicious stablecoin transactions alongside expanded compliance expectations for commercial banks and other financial intermediaries.
Regulatory steps will widen monitoring of cash networks, currency-exchange booths and gold bullion trading to prevent these channels from being used to launder funds or finance shadow economic activity. High-value cash transactions will require source-of-funds declarations. Exchanges that swap large-denomination banknotes for smaller notes without clear business reasons will be scrutinized, and cash deposits above 5 million baht (about $150,000) must be fully disclosed.
Thailand’s central bank still prohibits the use of digital assets and stablecoin payments as legal tender, although crypto trading remains legal and regulated. The country’s largest exchange, Bitkub, reports roughly $26 million in daily trading volume, with nearly 40% classified as forex activity and the USDT/THB pair among the most active, according to market trackers.
The current measures follow an aggressive 2025 anti-scamming effort in which banks froze some three million accounts to combat mule accounts and gray capital. That operation drew criticism after thousands of ordinary people and legitimate businesses were caught up in the restrictions, prompting calls for more precise targeting and safeguards for innocent account holders.
The Bank of Thailand and regulators say the enhanced stablecoin and cash surveillance is intended as a longer-term, coordinated response to curb illicit finance while limiting disruption to legitimate commerce.