Thailand proposes ~$148,000 daily stablecoin cap at licensed exchanges to fight money laundering

Thailand's Securities and Exchange Commission has opened public comment on a draft rule that would cap how much stablecoin value an individual can move through a single licensed digital asset operator each day, The Block reported on November 13.

The proposed limit is 5 million baht — about $147,750 — per operator, per day, counted in each direction (deposits and withdrawals). The draft, announced Thursday, would also require that stablecoins move only between accounts or wallets belonging to the same person, barring transfers to someone else's wallet on a registered platform. It follows a public hearing in September on supervising stablecoin activity through licensed operators, per The Block.

The reach has limits worth stating plainly: the rules apply to registered platforms, not to pure peer-to-peer on-chain transactions outside them. Several categories are also exempt from the 5-million-baht cap — a customer's transfers between their own accounts on SEC-supervised platforms, operators' own business transfers, market-maker activity, certain token-offering and refund transactions, and activities approved by the Bank of Thailand.

Operators would additionally have to comply with the Travel Rule through customer profiling and screening, use blockchain analytics to flag links to high-risk or watchlisted wallets, and ensure that stablecoin flows are "commensurate with the customer's source of income and financial position," the SEC said per The Block.

The draft layers on further disclosure duties. Exchanges would have to name their market makers and the assets they provide liquidity for; brokers would be barred from using liquidity providers for stablecoin-baht trading pairs; and off-platform broker and dealer deals would face a 3-million-baht (~$88,528) minimum threshold with disclosed trading prices.

Public comments are due by November 26.

Key facts

• Proposed cap: 5 million baht (~$147,750) per operator, per day, each direction, on individual stablecoin deposits/withdrawals (The Block).
• Same-person rule: stablecoins may move only between wallets/accounts of the same customer on registered platforms (The Block).
• Not covered: pure P2P on-chain transfers outside registered platforms (The Block).
• Off-platform broker/dealer deals: 3-million-baht (~$88,528) minimum, prices disclosed (The Block).
• Comment deadline: November 26, 2026 (The Block).

The real-world read

This is a draft out for comment, not law — the numbers and carve-outs can still change before anything binds. The cap is also narrower than a headline figure suggests: it governs flows through licensed operators, while on-chain P2P transfers outside those platforms sit outside its scope — the exact channel determined launderers favor. The SEC frames this as closing "grey economy" gaps, and The Block notes Thai authorities had already begun using data analytics to scrutinize unusual USDT trading. Whether a per-operator daily ceiling meaningfully constrains that, or merely pushes volume to multiple venues or off-platform, is the open question the draft doesn't answer.

One sourcing caveat: this account rests on a single secondary report of the SEC's draft. The primary notification text itself — and its precise exemption wording — would settle any ambiguity.

Opinion, and whose

The SEC's stated rationale — that the measures prevent money laundering, cybercrime, and the circumvention of international transfer rules — is the regulator's own characterization, not a demonstrated outcome. No independent assessment of the rule's likely effectiveness is on the record here.

Sources

• The Block (reputable secondary), "Thailand seeks $148,000 daily cap on certain stablecoin transfers to curb money laundering," Nov. 13, 2026 — provided all figures, the draft's terms, exemptions, disclosure requirements, and the comment deadline, citing Thailand's SEC. No primary SEC document or marketing material was involved.

This is news reporting, not financial advice.