Thai SEC opens consultation period for token issuance rules

Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has opened a period of consultation for feedback on rules that would allow exchanges or individuals connected to an exchange to issue utility tokens, according to a Friday statement.

Under the proposed rules, exchanges would have to disclose the names of anyone associated with the token issuers, which would assist the SEC in monitoring for signs of insider trading. The plan is part of Thailand’s efforts to establish a regulatory framework for the crypto industry.

The country announced in May plans to allow tourists to spend crypto via credit cards, just a few days before blocking crypto exchanges OKX and Bybit in the country over concerns about unlicensed operations and money laundering. A month later, it announced a waiver on capital gains tax on crypto sales made through licensed crypto service providers.

Thailand was home to a crypto insider trading scandal in 2022. In August of that year, the SEC alleged that the chief technology officer of Bitkub, one of the largest exchanges in the country, used insider information to purchase certain tokens ahead of a major deal.

Insider trading in crypto

Insider trading is the act of buying or selling a security based on private, nonpublic information. The practice is considered illegal in many jurisdictions, but the exact rules depend on the regulating body, such as a country’s corresponding Securities and Exchange Commission.

There have been several instances of alleged insider trading in the crypto market industry.

In 2021, OpenSea employee Nate Chastain was accused of using insider knowledge to buy NFTs that were soon to be featured on the OpenSea homepage. Chastain was convicted in 2023 of wire fraud and money laundering and sentenced to three months in prison.

In 2022, three Coinbase employees were charged with insider trading. Two of them were sentenced to prison.

More recently, Binance suspended a staffer in March after an investigation into alleged insider trading. There were also insider trading allegations surrounding US President Donald Trump’s memecoin Official Trump (TRUMP), after a blockchain analytics firm analyzed the unusual behavior of a whale wallet.