Thailand’s securities regulator has finalised a set of Travel Rule requirements that will force digital asset businesses to gather detailed information on everyone involved in crypto transfers, including transactions that touch personal, self-managed wallets.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) confirmed the rules, closing out a public comment period that ran from March through July. Licensed operators now have until February 27, 2027 to build out the technical and compliance infrastructure needed to comply, a runway of roughly six months.
Under the framework, exchanges and other regulated platforms will be obligated to identify both their own customers and the counterparties on the other end of a transaction. This applies not only to transfers between two licensed platforms but also to transactions where crypto moves in or out of a self-hosted wallet, meaning one where the user alone holds the private keys rather than a custodian or exchange. In those cases, operators must confirm that the customer actually owns or controls the wallet in question before processing the transfer.
Beyond identity verification, the rules impose a five-year record-keeping requirement covering every transfer. For the first two years of that window, operators must store the data in a form that regulators can pull up and review without delay, giving authorities faster access during investigations or audits. Firms will also be expected to vet the service providers sitting on the other side of transactions, adding another layer of due diligence to cross-platform transfers.
Pornanong Budsaratragoon, the SEC’s secretary-general, framed the move as part of a broader effort to close gaps that criminals could exploit. She said the rules aim to “reduce the risk of digital asset operators being used for money laundering and terrorist financing.”
The Travel Rule announcement comes just two days after the SEC floated a separate proposal that would take crypto oversight in a more market-opening direction. On Monday, the regulator suggested letting intermediaries give retail investors access to certain crypto derivatives listed on approved overseas exchanges, a step that could widen the range of products available to everyday traders even as compliance demands on operators grow tighter.
