Share this article
Thailand’s Digital Tourist Wallet Rolls Out, With Crypto Link Still Stuck in Sandbox
Bangkok’s push to revive tourism now includes an e-money wallet for foreign visitors, with a crypto conversion feature still under regulatory review.
Aug 18, 2025, 8:30 a.m.
What to know:
- Thailand has introduced a Tourist Wallet for QR payments in baht, but the crypto conversion feature is pending regulatory review until mid-August.
- The Tourist Wallet aims to ease payment friction for travelers from countries without cross-border QR links, allowing top-ups via cash, cards, or bank transfers.
- Crypto conversion in the Tourist Wallet requires regulatory approval, with a focus on safety and compliance, and remains unavailable until the review process concludes.
Thailand introduced its Tourist Wallet for foreign-currency-to-baht QR payments, but the crypto conversion feature is suspended pending a regulatory review through mid-August.
The Bank of Thailand said the Tourist Wallet is meant to solve a practical problem: Cross-border QR links are only live with eight partner countries including Singapore, Malaysia and, soon, China via UnionPay. Travelers from elsewhere still face friction when paying in Thailand, something the new wallet aims to address.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Tourists will be able to top up their wallets with cash at provider counters, foreign debit and credit cards, or overseas bank transfers. Spending caps apply: 500,000 baht ($13,800) a month for merchants with card terminals and 50,000 baht for small shops. Cash withdrawals are prohibited, and accounts can be closed only through redemption.
The crypto angle, however, remains conditional. The country's Securities and Exchange Commission is testing whether regulated exchanges and custodians can safely let foreign tourists convert crypto into baht balances for use in the Tourist Wallet.
The scheme would require full passport-based know-your-customer identification (KYC), with regulators citing concerns over mule accounts and money laundering. Until the regulatory review process, called a sandbox, closes and regulators publish results, currently scheduled for later this month, crypto holders won’t be able to spend directly.
For now, the Tourist Wallet is a fiat play dressed in QR code convenience, with crypto adoption still pending the outcome of the sandbox process.
More For You
What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
More For You
State of Crypto: Wrapping Up the Month
Congress continues to make progress on crypto issues but things are moving slowly.
Top Stories
