Overview
- Thailand’s securities regulator, which unveiled a draft on Wednesday, would treat anyone bankrolling a crypto firm’s major shareholder as a major shareholder who must be approved.
- The proposal targets guarantees, structured financing, back‑to‑back contracts, and funding routed through intermediaries that can hide who controls a licensed exchange, broker, or dealer.
- The draft carves out routine financing by excluding regulated bank loans and standard margin lending, and it limits reviews of government shareholders to the public entity itself.
- The consultation runs through April 22, and operators already face a 180‑day window from March 4 to recheck ownership structures and apply for any missing approvals.
- Authorities are pairing the ownership sweep with tougher anti‑money‑laundering steps, and exchanges reported freezing more than 10,000 suspected mule accounts earlier this year.