The SEC has initiated revisions to the NC requirements and the digital asset custody regulations, in order to promote local activities, reduce reliance on foreign service providers, and ensure that capital maintenance appropriately reflects the risks arising from business operations, as well as revise the NC requirements applicable to securities and derivatives business operators to be more appropriate and to provide broader coverage of their business operations. In this connection, the SEC conducted a public hearing during May - June 2026, in which most respondents agreed with the proposed principles.
The SEC has therefore prepared draft notifications and the related reporting forms in accordance with the aforementioned principles, and is seeking public comments on the draft notifications, with the key points as follows:
(1) Introduction of new types of risks for business operators required to maintain capital under the NC-1 approach*, namely counterparty risk, settlement risk, and fund management risk;
(2) Revision of the requirements applicable to business operators to support local activities as follows:
(2.1) Allowing digital asset brokers (DA Brokers) to use the services of local digital asset exchanges (DA Exchanges) for the execution of trading orders and the custody of customers’ assets under the specified conditions;
(2.2) Prescribing additional rules, conditions and procedures for undertaking business for DA Brokers and DA Exchanges that intend to cooperate with each other (counterparty selection, contracting, disclosure of information, submission of reports, and standards for the safekeeping of customers’ assets and the management of digital asset wallets);
(2.3) Revising the risk charge rates for the custody of customers’ assets by digital asset custodians (DA Custodians) to a tiered rate, and enhancing the standards for the safekeeping of customers’ assets by requiring the segregation of the digital asset wallet of each customer and the use of advanced technology in the management of keys and digital asset wallets;
(3) Other matters:
(3.1) Revisions resulting from the introduction of the new risk categories, namely:
- Revising the definition of digital tokens that meet the conditions for exemption from the calculation of counterparty risk;
- Revising the definition of insurance policies that may be used to offset the NC required to support the risk arising from the custody of customers’ assets, so as to cover only losses from the risk arising from the custody of customers’ assets in hot wallets and cold wallets;
- Revising the adjusted NC calculation formula to align with the introduction of the new types of risks;
(3.2) Revising the minimum capital requirement thresholds triggering business suspension for DA operators conducting securities and/or derivatives businesses under the same entity;
(3.3) Revising the definition of derivatives business operators to provide broader coverage;
(4) Revision of reporting forms and explanatory notes for the preparation of NC reports to align with the revised requirements, and to ensure that the reporting of NC information by DA operators is consistent with that of securities business operators.
In this regard, the consultation paper is available on the SEC website at
https://www.sec.or.th/TH/Pages/PB_Detail.aspx?SECID=1217 and on the Legal Hub at https://law.go.th/listeningDetail?survey_id=ODIyN0RHQV9MQVdfRlJPTlRFTkQ=. Stakeholders and interested parties are invited to submit comments via the relevant websites or by email to thanapa@sec.or.th, sarunb@sec.or.th, pisut@sec.or.th, sawarin@sec.or.th, and arthipha@sec.or.th. The public hearing will end on 11 October 2026.
Note: * The NC-1 approach applies to digital asset exchanges, digital asset brokers, digital asset dealers, digital asset fund managers that provide custody of customers’ assets, and digital asset advisors that provide custody of customers’ assets.