Thai cryptocurrency platform operators have reportedly frozen greater than 10,000 accounts suspected of getting used to launder illicit funds, because the nation steps up efforts to crack down on so-called mule accounts.
The freezes adopted the rollout of stricter screening measures geared toward slowing suspicious crypto transfers and requiring extra Know Your Buyer checks earlier than higher-risk transactions are accomplished, in accordance with native reporting from the Bangkok Submit on Tuesday.
The tighter course of helped operators establish and freeze greater than 10,000 suspected mule accounts, Att Thongyai Asavanund, chief govt of KuCoin Thailand and chairman of the Thai Digital Asset Operators Commerce Affiliation (TDO), informed the Bangkok Submit.
The transfer builds on earlier efforts by Thailand’s Securities and Alternate Fee and the TDO to curb cash laundering and funding scams involving digital property. In February 2025, the SEC stated it had labored with the TDO, the Financial institution of Thailand, the Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau, the Central Investigation Bureau, the Anti-Cash Laundering Workplace and the Thai Bankers’ Affiliation to ascertain extra safeguards towards mule accounts.
That effort led to Thai digital asset operators reportedly freezing 47,692 mule accounts in 2025.
The TDO represents licensed digital asset operators in Thailand, together with exchanges and brokers.
Cointelegraph has contacted the TDO for touch upon the full worth of frozen funds however had not obtained a response by publication.
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In the course of the February 2025 workshop, the SEC and TDO joined different regulators, police businesses and banking teams to develop extra measures for figuring out and limiting suspicious accounts.
“The SEC and the TDO have collectively developed pointers for monitoring and investigating suspicious accounts,”SEC Deputy Secretary-Normal Jomkwan Kongsakul stated on the time.
“In at this time’s assembly, aside from enhancing business requirements to sort out digital asset mule accounts, now we have issued measures for addressing several types of mule accounts inside an expedited timeframe,” she added.
The businesses additionally agreed to broaden data-sharing pointers amongst crypto operators, banks and legislation enforcement businesses to assist forestall transfers to suspected mule accounts.
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The newest reported freezes come as Thailand launched a marketing campaign towards so-called “grey cash,” tightening oversight throughout bodily gold markets and digital property to shut money-laundering loopholes, Cointelegraph reported on Jan. 13.
For crypto exercise, the federal government ordered the SEC to strictly implement the Journey Rule, requiring licensed crypto asset service suppliers to gather and transmit figuring out details about the sender and recipient of sure digital asset transactions, notably in wallet-to-wallet transfers facilitated by exchanges.
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