Last Updated on October 31, 2022 by Bitfinsider

Both Thailand’s Association of Financial Technology and Hungary’s Association of Financial Technology have signed a bilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in order to facilitate the introduction of blockchain technology to their respective financial sectors.

“share experiences, best practices and explore areas potentially beneficial for direct cooperation,” according to a Facebook post by the Embassy of Hungary in Bangkok, the MOU will see the two associations “share experiences, best practices and explore areas potentially beneficial for direct cooperation.” The MOU was signed on October 25 by the Thai Fintech Association (TFA) and the Hungarian Blockchain Coalition.

According to an article from the Bangkok Post dated October 29, TFA president Chonladet Khemarattana stated that e-commerce, mobile payments, and digital currencies are quickly increasing in Thailand and that international cooperation is required to further develop local financial technology.

Additionally, he asserted that Thailand is home to twenty percent of the world’s cryptocurrency holders. The country was ranked eighth on the 2022 Global Crypto Adoption Index, which was published in September by analytics firm Chainalysis. Crypto payments company TripleA estimates that approximately six and a half percent of the population is in possession of cryptocurrency.

In March 2022, the Ministry of Innovation and Technology of Hungary and the National Data and Economy Knowledge Centre collaborated to establish the Hungarian Blockchain Coalition, whereas the Thai Fintech Association is a non-profit organization that was established in 2016 with the intention of representing the local financial technology industry, which includes cryptocurrency exchanges.

This agreement comes at a time when Thailand’s central bank, along with some of the country’s commercial banks, were involved in the testing of a cross-border wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC) transaction platform using distributed ledger technology in September. This testing took place in Thailand.

In addition, the Bank of Thailand said in August that it was planning to launch a pilot program for a retail CBDC by the end of 2022. The program will operate on a small scale and will involve approximately 10,000 users from the private sector. It would put the digital currency through its paces by doing “cash-like actions,” such as making purchases of physical items or services.

In the meantime, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of Thailand has implemented various limits on cryptocurrencies this year. In March, the SEC said that cryptocurrencies “may damage the stability of the financial system” and therefore prohibited their use as a method of payment.

The government is also cracking down on cryptocurrency lending platforms, and the SEC is making plans to make it illegal for cryptocurrency exchanges to offer or promote digital asset depository services.

It would appear that Hungary maintains a similarly uncompromising approach towards cryptocurrency. In February, the governor of the Hungarian National Bank, Gyorgy Matolcsy, called for a complete ban on all cryptocurrency trading and mining across the European Union, claiming that it “serviced criminal operations” and was “speculative.” He stated that the practice “facilitated” unlawful activity.