In Bangkok’s financial district, the screens show familiar contracts: equities, currencies, index futures. What is changing is not visible in the tickers, but in the legal architecture beneath them.
Thailand has approved amendments to its Derivatives Act that will allow cryptocurrencies and carbon credits to serve as underlying assets in regulated futures contracts. The move appears administrative. It is structural.
By expanding what qualifies as a tradable underlying, Thailand is redefining the perimeter of its formal capital market.
Expanding the perimeter
The Securities and Exchange Commission said digital assets will now be permitted as reference instruments for futures and other derivative contracts. Carbon credits will be classified as goods rather than variables, enabling both cash-settled and physically delivered futures to be listed on regulated exchanges.
That distinction carries weight.
Classification determines how contracts settle, how clearing houses manage exposure, and how credibility is established in emerging markets. In effect, assets that once operated at the edge of formal supervision are being drawn inside the system.
SEC Secretary-General Pornanong Budsaratragoon described the shift as support for “new forms of goods and variables—such as digital assets—allowing them to serve as underlying products and strengthening the position of digital assets as an investment asset class.”
She added that recognizing carbon credits as goods would permit physically delivered contracts, consistent with principles outlined in Thailand’s draft Climate Change Act and aligned with national carbon neutrality goals.
The perimeter has widened.
Volatility within structure
Cryptocurrencies have cycled between speculative expansion and regulatory scrutiny across jurisdictions. Carbon markets, meanwhile, have struggled in many regions with liquidity gaps and settlement uncertainty. Bringing both into a supervised derivatives regime does not eliminate volatility. It channels it.
That is the underlying calculation.
The SEC plans amendments to derivatives business licenses so digital asset operators can offer contracts referencing crypto. Supervisory requirements for exchanges and clearing houses will be reviewed to ensure suitability for the new instruments. Authorities are coordinating with the Thailand Futures Exchange to determine contract specifications, particularly for digital asset derivatives, so that product design reflects market risk characteristics and practical usage.
Structure precedes scale.
Alignment and positioning
The Cabinet’s approval, submitted by the Ministry of Finance, framed the changes as necessary to align Thailand’s derivatives market with international standards while strengthening investor protection and mitigating risk. The objective is not merely product expansion, but system modernization.
Standards define credibility.
As demand grows for exposure to digital assets and carbon instruments, the question is less whether these markets will expand, and more where they will be anchored. By embedding both within regulated exchanges and supervised clearing systems, Thailand is signaling that innovation will be absorbed rather than left to float beyond oversight.
Absorption is not endorsement. It is containment.
Whether liquidity follows will depend on contract design, supervisory discipline, and market confidence. But the direction is clear: assets once treated as peripheral are being folded into the core.
The boundaries of the market are shifting.
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