Today the Bankgok Post reported that the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) plans for digital asset trading to start in the second half of this year.
SET first announced its digital asset plans back in 2019. Last week the stock exchange unveiled its three-year plan, which referred to “a digital asset platform to widen business opportunities and revenue streams to the capital market’s operators while offering new investment alternatives to investors.”
The same document said that it’s leveraging blockchain and partnered with KBTG, the technology arm of Kasikornbank (KBank) for the development.
The Thai stock exchange plans to steer clear of cryptocurrencies. It has established three criteria to assess tokens, and a digital asset needs to meet at least one of them. The first is if the token is backed by an underlying asset that investors can analyze. Next was a ” valuable product that supports economic activities”. And the final option is if a token represents a product that benefits society or the environment.
SET’s digital asset platform links to various digital asset exchanges, digital wallets, and initial coin offering (ICO) portals.
“We just ‘buy the future’ and hopefully, the digital asset marketplace will grow as expected,” said SET EVP Kitti Sutthiatthasil.
Meanwhile, numerous stock exchanges around the world are either developing digital asset platforms or investing in them. Perhaps the highest-profile is Switzerland’s SIX Digital Exchange (SDX). In Germany, Boerse Stuttgart initiated its digital assets strategy with cryptocurrencies. Singapore’s SGX recently issued a blockchain bond on its digital asset platform and made several digital asset platform investments. And NYSE owner ICE launched Bakkt, which recently was listed via a SPAC, but ICE still owns almost two-thirds of the equity.
