“Eligible Cryptocurrencies”: Thailand’s Verdict!
Following the regulatory process in the cryptocurrency sector has revealed that one of the key things holding back adoption is regulatory clarity and a global guideline for nations to follow due to the borderless nature of cryptocurrencies.
Authorities in the U.S. have flexed their muscles over digital assets, and now the SEC of Thailand has officially reported on its opinions regarding which cryptocurrencies are eligible for ICOs and which are removed from eligibility.
“Bangkok, 28 February 2019 – The SEC has updated the list of cryptocurrencies eligible for initial coin offering (ICO) investment or value comparison as base trading pair against other digital assets traded on digital asset exchanges. As a result, the current list comprises four cryptocurrencies, namely Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Ripple (XRP) and Stellar (XLM).”
This is great news for the BTC, ETH, XRP, and XLM communities, but there are some surprising choices amongst the cryptocurrencies that are no longer eligible.
“Three other cryptocurrencies have been removed from the list, namely (1) Bitcoin Cash (BCH), (2) Ethereum Classic (ETC) and (3) Litecoin (LTC). In any case, the list update has no impact on investors or digital asset businesses because so far no ICO has been launched and the operating digital asset exchanges have never used BCH, ETC or LTC as base trading pairs.” – Thailand, SEC News Release
There’s no need to panic though, as the report states that this has no impact on investors or businesses operating in the realm of digital assets because no ICO has been launched (so far) and none of the operating exchanges have BCH, ETC, or LTC as a base pair.
Why Did Thailand’s SEC Remove a Basket of Altcoins?
The change comes after an original list of all seven of the above coins were given eligibility in June 2018. Reasons for the sudden change could be influenced by multiple variables.
Initial coin offerings (ICOs) took the digital asset sector by storm until late 2017. Reducing the number of cryptocurrencies allowed for token sales could be to create greater control over projects attempting an ICO. It could also be to make the criteria stricter as a method to weed out potential bad actors.
Looking at it from a technological standpoint, both ETC and BCH experienced instability within their respective networks recently. 51% attacks on ETC resulted in double-spends of over 200,000 ETC.
The recent hashing power war within the BCH community would have damaged not just the confidence of Bitcoin Cash, but of most smaller cryptocurrencies powered by proof-of-work.
Finally, the report states that even the accepted cryptocurrencies are not considered legal tender in Thailand.
This is not investment advice; please always do thorough research and only invest what you are willing to lose, especially in times of uncertainty.