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Hungary and Thailand Will Collaborate to Explore Blockchain Technology
A bilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) has been signed by Thailand's and Hungary's financial technology associations to facilitate the use of blockchain technology in their respective financial sectors.

By
Apac CIOOutlook | Thursday, November 03, 2022
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The pact between the two nations’ financial technology associations will see cooperation on technology, including blockchain, to power their respective financial industries.
FREMONT, CA: A bilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) has been signed by Thailand's and Hungary's financial technology associations to facilitate the use of blockchain technology in their respective financial sectors. The MOU between the Thai Fintech Association (TFA) and the Hungarian Blockchain Coalition would allow the two organisations to exchange experiences and best practices and investigate areas potentially useful for direct cooperation.
TFA President Chonladet Khemarattana stated that international cooperation is required to advance local financial technology because e-commerce, mobile payments, and digital currencies are expanding quickly in Thailand. Additionally, he stated that 20 per cent of the world's cryptocurrency holders reside in Thailand, which was ranked ninth in the 2022 Global Crypto Adoption Index released in September by analytics company Chainalysis and cryptocurrency payments business TripleA.
The National Data and Economy Knowledge Center and the Ministry of Innovation and Technology of Hungary jointly established the Hungarian Blockchain Coalition in March 2022, while the Thai Fintech Association was established as a nonprofit organisation in 2016 to represent the local financial technology sector, including cryptocurrency exchanges.
The agreement was reached at the same time as Thailand's central bank, and a few of its commercial banks participated in a cross-border wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC) transaction platform testing project using distributed ledger technology in September. In addition, the Bank of Thailand stated in August that it intended to launch a trial programme for a retail CBDC by the end of 2022 on a small scale in the private sector with about 10,000 customers. Cash-like actions like purchasing products or services would be used to test the digital currency.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of Thailand has also imposed certain limitations on cryptocurrencies this year, forbidding the use of cryptocurrencies as payment methods in March because they can disrupt the financial system's stability.
The SEC intends to prevent cryptocurrency exchanges from offering or supporting services for digital asset depository, while the authority is also cracking down on crypto lending sites. It appears that Hungary also has a strict position on cryptocurrency. Gyorgy Matolcsy, governor of the Hungarian National Bank, called for a blanket ban on all cryptocurrency trading and mining throughout the European Union in February, claiming that it serviced illicit activity and was speculative.