Thai crypto adoption is booming, with volume up 588% since November

Crypto adoption appears to be booming in Thailand, with the local Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, estimating domestic crypto volumes have increased by nearly 600% since November.

Data compiled by the Thai’s SEC and published by Bloomberg indicates combined volume across licensed Thai crypto exchanges increased from 574.5 million in November to $3.96 billion in November.

Speaking to Bloomberg, Atichanan Pulges, co-founder of top Thai exchange Bitkub, estimated volume on his platform had increased by 40% between January and February. Pulges claimed Bitkub represents 90% of local trade activity and services 300,000 customers.

Despite the surge in licensed crypto volumes, Thai peer-to-peer trading has seen comparatively muted growth.

While roughly $650,000 worth of Bitcoin traded weekly on top P2P marketplaces Localbitcoins and Paxful combined during November, February’s volumes oscillated between roughly $700,000 and $1 million — an increase of between approximately 10% and 50%. During March, Thai P2P Bitcoin trade volumes slumped from $950,000 to roughly $600,000.

In response to the increasing popularity of crypto, Thailand’s SEC has proposed introducing a training course and test to restrict inexperienced traders from speculating on crypto assets. Last month, the commission also hinted it will introduce a $32,000 minimum annual income requirement for domestic crypto traders.

Alongside a spike in crypto trading, Thailand also appears to be having a DeFi boom, with the country ranking, with a late-March report from The Defiant finding the country to rank second worldwide by search traffic for the keyword “decentralized finance” over the past 12 months.

The report also found Thailand to be among the top emerging economies for traffic to top DeFi protocols, with Thai visitors representing the second-largest segment of traffic to Badger Finance, ranking third on MakerDAO, and fifth on Curve.