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Adoption for cryptos such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) has significantly increased during the coronavirus pandemic. In Thailand, for instance, crypto adoption boomed with an almost six-fold increase in the country’s transaction volume in less than five months.
Thailand’s crypto transaction volumes increased by almost 600 percent since November 2020, according to Cointelegraph. Based on data from the country’s Securities and Exchange Commission, the combined transaction volume from Thai crypto exchanges rose to $3.96 billion from just $574.5 million in November last year.
Atichanan Pulges, the co-founder of the Thai crypto exchange Bitkub, estimated that the platform’s trading volume increased by 40 percent between January and February, according to Bloomberg. Pulges also revealed that Bitkub, which services 300,000 clients, has a 90 percent market share of the country’s cryptocurrency trading activity.
While Thailand’s licensed crypto exchanges posted massive increases in trading volume on their platforms in recent months, their peer-to-peer counterparts appear to be lagging behind. Based on SEC data, growth in trading volume on P2P platforms is muted.
The combined weekly trading volume of Thailand’s top P2P marketplaces, Localbitcoin and Paxful, in November is around $650,000. By February, volumes ranged from $700,000 to $1 million or an increase of between 10 and 50 percent since last year. However, March P2P volume slid down to $600,000, which is slightly lower than November last year.
Aside from the increase in crypto adoption, Thailand is also experiencing a DeFi boom. A report from The Defiant said that the country is ranked second worldwide by search traffic for the keyword “decentralized finance” over the past 12 months. The report also said that Thailand is among the top emerging economies for traffic to top DeFi protocols.
However, the rising popularity of crypto has raised concerns that inexperienced traders might not be fully aware of the risks associated with investing in the volatile digital assets market. The SEC released a proposal in February that seeks to introduce changes to the requirements for new traders.
For instance, the SEC proposed that new investors should have at least 1 million baht (around $33,000) minimum annual income, proven trading experience, and pass a minimum age limit. However, the draft proved to be unpopular considering that the average annual salary in the country is only around 175,450 baht, or $5,800, which meant that people with low or middle incomes would be barred from investing in crypto.
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