Image by Ledger Insights

During a press conference yesterday Thailand’s Minister of Finance, Pichai Chunhavajira, discussed plans to issue a Thai Baht stablecoin backed by government bonds. The launch target is October. It follows previous reports of plans to use Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies as payments on the holiday island of Phuket.

However, former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra recently told the Bangkok Post that the planned crypto sandbox is for asset backed tokens, where the underpinning might include government bonds and gold. So for payments, the plan is a Thai Baht ฿ stablecoin rather than Bitcoin ₿.

Minister Chunhavajira said new government bonds currently “end up in the hands of financial institutions. We want to make these bonds more accessible to individual investors.” Hence, initially newly issued bonds will be used to back the stablecoin. Five years ago the country used blockchain to issue smaller denominated bonds to the public.

Retrieved from: https://www.ledgerinsights.com/thai-government-stablecoin-baht/