Thai government urged to expedite digital money regulation

BANGKOK, February 1 (TNA) - The Thai government has been called for expediting its regulation of digital money trade and investment to prevent any repeated financial crisis in the country. Kongkiat Opaswongkarn, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Asia Plus Group Holdings Public Company Limited (Asia Plus), made the call on January 31, in response to reports that relevant government agencies are considering a new legislation to regulate the digital money trade and investment. Kongkiat pointed out that investment in the digital money, including Bitcoin, has increased to billions of US dollars, while the value of the digital money has considerably fluctuated and dropped, with the value of Bitcoin alone having plunged by about 50 per cent so far. Kongkiat, thus, warned Thai investors to be well-planned and careful in the cryptocurrency investment, if any, as there could be a new global financial crisis if the digital money business collapsed. Kongkiat also cautioned that high returns to the investment in the cryptocurrency in the short run might not be sustainable, citing the dot-com boom, a period of an extreme growth of Internet-based businesses in the United States in the mid-1990s but they later collapsed and shut down in the early 2000s, as an example. "If people want to try some investment in the digital money, they should only invest in small amounts as there has been no base price or value of each type of the cryptocurrency although the current value of the digital money is in line with its demand and supply", the Asia Plus CEO advised. "Digital money investment through the Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) should also be cautious, as there has been no legislation to take care of investors", said the Asia Plus CEO. The Asia Plus CEO urged agencies concerned to speed up their issuance of laws to regulate both digital money and ICO businesses in the Thai economy in order to prevent any repeated financial crisis in the country. (TNA)