The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) advises listed companies to exercise care and caution before investing in digital assets.
On Sept 17, the SEC sent a circular advising all listed companies that invests or plans to invest in digital assets to exercise discretion in making decisions regarding such investments.
The regulator said digital assets are associated with high risk due to price volatility. Listed companies are advised to invest in digital assets only through licensed digital asset business operators to ensure legal protection from the SEC and prevent material impacts on the companies' financial position or operating results.
In the notice, the SEC reiterates that listed companies should take action and various factors relevant to the investment into consideration.
The action includes conducting a risk assessment and finding potential impacts, establishing measures and mechanisms for risk management, assessing readiness of the operators' working systems and personnel, analysing and selecting digital assets, and developing investment tracking tools.
In addition, the SEC also urges listed companies to disclose information related to their digital asset investment via the the Stock Exchange of Thailand's Electronic Information Transmission System, their own websites, and the annual registration statement and annual report (Form 56-1 One Report).
This is to ensure that investors have access to sufficient and accurate data to make well-informed investment decisions.
In any case, the SEC advises investors to make any transaction related to digital assets through licensed digital asset business operators supervised by the regulator to ensure legal protection.
In this regard, all digital asset business operators in Thailand are required to obtain a licence under the Emergency Decree on Digital Asset Businesses.