Thai Government to Issue $150M Worth of Digital Investment Tokens

Thailand’s Ministry of Finance is set to issue 5 billion baht ($150 million) of its digital investment token – the G-Token, to raise funds from the public, Finance Minister Pichai Chunhavajira said at a Tuesday briefing.

This story was originally reported by Bloomberg.

The announcement came after the cabinet endorsed the new token’s initiative and is a part of the current budget borrowing plan. The initial 5 billion baht is meant to “test the market,” Chunhavajira added.

The decision follows the former prime minister of the country Thaksin Shinawatra’s request for the nation to consider issuing stablecoins backed by government bonds, earlier this year.

“Investors can invest with a small amount of cash for the new tokens,” Chunhavajira said at the briefing. “Investors will earn higher returns than banks’ deposits.”

Banks in Thailand currently offer 12-month deposit interest rates between 1.25% and 1.5% below the nation’s central bank, policy rate of 1.75% according to Bloomberg.

Thailand has been making strides to broaden its crypto approach. Last year the nation put in place a tax exemption for crypto earnings and its Securities and Exchange Commission recently added stablecoins USDC and USDT to its list of approved cryptocurrencies for trading on digital exchanges.

CoinDesk reached out for a comment.