Thailand Sets Travel Rule Deadline for Digital Asset Operators

Thailand's Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has set a deadline for digital asset operators to comply with its finalized version of the 'Travel Rule', which requires them to identify both the sender and receiver in every crypto transfer. The rule is effective from February 27, 2027.

The Thai SEC has outlined four core duties that digital asset business operators must meet: writing policies and procedures for handling transfer risk, gathering identity data on customers and their counterparties, passing originator and beneficiary details to the receiving operator alongside the transfer order, and holding accompanying records on transactions for at least five years.

Operators also face new due diligence responsibilities on any intermediaries that handle funds during transfers as well as the firms on the other end of transfers. The Thai SEC's demand for firms to check that users actually own or control the funds they transfer from self-custodial wallets will be the most challenging hurdle to cross.

The commission frames the whole exercise as bringing Thai oversight into line with standards set by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), whose Recommendation 16 originated the Travel Rule for crypto. Thailand is late rather than early: FATF estimated that 83% of the jurisdictions it surveyed had already passed Travel Rule legislation by 2026.