The Thai government has taken significant steps to strengthen its laws and regulations aimed at tackling cybercrime, particularly mule accounts, and enhancing the security of public financial transactions. The amendments to the Digital Asset Business Law and Cybercrime Law will come into effect once published in the Government Gazette, with the goal of improving law enforcement, boosting teamwork between agencies, and tackling cybercrime more effectively.
Key measures in the revised laws include website and application blocking, strengthened anti-money laundering protocols, and stricter penalties for violators. The changes will make it easier to stop the misuse of digital asset accounts, explain how information is shared between agencies, and improve efforts to prevent foreign digital asset platforms from being used for money laundering.
Measures related to digital asset mule accounts include:
- Requiring digital asset business operators to exchange information, screen and suspend transactions or accounts related to cybercrimes in the same manner as commercial banks.
- Establishing a blacklist of individuals or digital asset wallet addresses related to cybercrimes.
- Requiring commercial banks, telephone and telecommunications network providers, social media service providers, and digital asset business operators to take joint responsibilities for damages caused by cybercrimes.
- Specifying penalties for owners of digital asset mule accounts who open or allow others to use their digital asset accounts to commit cybercrimes.
Measures for preventing the use of foreign digital asset exchanges as a channel for money laundering include:
- Detering and preventing foreign peer-to-peer (P2P) digital asset trading platforms from providing services to local investors.
- Authorizing the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society to block websites and applications of foreign digital asset business operators that solicit or advertise services to investors in Thailand.
