THAILAND TO LAUNCH TOURISTDIGIPAY, FIRST CRYPTO PAYMENT SANDBOX FOR TOURISTS

If you find yourself in Thailand in the coming months with no ATM in sight, you don’t need to worry. In a bold move to modernize tourism infrastructure – and combat dwindling tourist numbers – Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has announced plans to launch TouristDigiPay, the country’s first regulatory sandbox for everyday crypto payments.

The system is scheduled for launch in Q4 2025 and will undergo an 18-month pilot run.

How TouristDigiPay Works

Using the system, foreign tourists won’t be paying vendors directly with their wallets. Instead, there will be an intermediary layer that converts their crypto into the local Thai baht through licensed e-money service providers. That way, tourists can avoid volatility, complexity, or legal ambiguity that often comes with using digital assets directly, and local vendors will receive payment in local currency.

The bells and whistles familiar to online casino enthusiasts, such as Know Your Customer (KYC) and Customer Due Diligence (CDD), will apply for every payment, as will limitations like a monthly spending limit and inhibition of direct cash withdrawal. This is done in order to protect both tourists and vendors from potential misuse and thwart money-laundering.

Thailand Riding the Crypto Wave

According to SEC Secretary-General, Pornanong Budsaratragoon, “the TouristDigiPay project builds upon the existing ecosystem that integrates the digital asset trading system regulated by the SEC with the e-money system regulated by the Bank of Thailand.”

Indeed, Thailand and crypto tourism have a history together. From January 2025, visitors in Phuket can use Bitcoin as an alternative payment method via a trial program that served as a test run for the new sandbox. Unlike TouristDigiPay, it allows tourists to register BTC through a Thai exchange and make purchases in BTC and for merchants to receive the funds in baht.

Additionally, the country has moved to incentivize crypto trading with a five‑year capital gains tax exemption (2025–2029) on transactions conducted through licensed crypto service providers. The service is expected to generate over 1 billion baht (approximately US$30 million) in medium-term tax revenue.

Tourism Headwinds Sweep the Kingdom

There is little doubt that Thailand’s bold push for digital modernization is partly due to its tourism industry suffering a severe blow. After years of growth, the first half of 2025 saw visitor numbers dwindle from 17.7 million to 16.8 million (5%), with neighbouring Japan and Vietnam gaining appeal due to favorable currency conditions and lower tourist costs.

Particularly painful is the scattering of Chinese tourists – whose numbers dropped by 34% in the same period.

Beyond Thailand

Meanwhile, crypto is proving to be quite a tourist pull in 2025, with countries left and right integrating crypto into payment infrastructures in order to bolster numbers.

The Kingdom of Bhutan stands at the forefront of this digital revolution, launching what’s touted to be the world’s first national-level crypto tourism payment system earlier in July. In a collaboration between Binance Pay and local DK Bank, tourists are able to scan QR codes and pay for goods and services in a wide range of cryptocurrencies.

Also in July, the UAE government signed an agreement that would allow passengers to use Crypto.com to pay for flights and make in-flight purchases. As a result, airlines such as Emirates, Air Arabia, and Alternative Airlines accept crypto bookings with Bitcoin, Ether, stablecoins, and other digital assets.

But that’s hardly the last frontier. Crypto is set to conquer space, too, with Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin enabling digital payments for New Shepard space tours. Space travellers can now use Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL), Tether (USDT), and USD Coin (USDC) to fund their trips past the Kármán Line.