Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the seizure of certain cryptocurrency facilities here in Thailand. So yeah, crypto, the crypto space, Thailand has availed itself or wanted to make itself something of a hub for crypto. My opinion is Bangkok is going to end up de facto, one of the main financial hubs of East Asia. It will probably be us, Hong Kong, obviously Shanghai – yes, Singapore will be in there, but in my opinion, Singapore will probably be lagging the pack; they are going to be the node that sort of represents Western interests out here. East Asian business interests are going to do what they're going to do. It's why Thailand isn't trying to be a financial centre, because it just is one. It's like it's the epicentre of gold in Southeast Asia. Go down to Yawarat sometime in Chinatown. I mean if you have any doubts as to where the epicentre of gold is in Southeast Asia, that will disabuse you of any doubts; let me leave it that way.

That said, there apparently has been a number of incidences of folks mining cryptocurrency in Thailand, and sort of siphoning power and resources in such a way, basically they're not paying their power bills at the end of the day; that's what it seems to be coming down to. 

Really quickly before I get into the citation, there have been folks that have said, "hey, is there anything we can do to support you? We get that you do this for the firm, but we don't need to avail ourselves of a lawyer necessarily at the moment, or a law firm. We know you're not monetized on this channel; is there anything we can sort of do." Well as I've discussed in other videos, my better half and I set up a restaurant here in downtown Bangkok. The name is Pancake Palace. As the name implies, breakfast anytime as well as American Diner style food: hamburgers, cheeseburgers, buffalo wings, chicken wings. We've got hot dogs, chilli dogs, chilli bowls. We have got tacos; we've also got grilled cheese sandwiches, and we have got Coke in glass bottles. So if you're interested, come on down, check us out; links are in the description below. 

That said, let's jump in here and talk about cryptocurrency. Quoting directly from Thai Enquirer, this is a posting on X from @ThaiEnquirer. Quoting directly: "Police Seize 45 Cryptocurrency Mining Machines in Raids on 4 Sites, Losses Reach 8.98 million Baht. Police and Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA) Officials seized 45 cryptocurrency mining machines during raids on four locations in Ubon Ratchani after uncovering electricity theft linked to illegal mining operations. Authorities found 18 machines at one site, 15 at a second location and 12 at a third. A fourth location was empty, with investigators believing about 20 machines had been removed before the raid. Police and PEA Officials said the operation caused losses of about 8.98 million baht, including 2.54 million Baht at the first time, 2.11 million Baht at the second, 1.82 million Baht at the third and 2.5 million Baht at the fourth location. PEA Region 2 will pursue civil action, while police are gathering evidence to identify and prosecute those responsible."

Now there are those who would say, "what are we talking about here? Why are we raiding these people? blah, blah, blah." Well what it looks like is there is a deficiency of about 9 million Baht; basically somebody didn't pay for power. That's about $300,000 in Dollar terms; I mean it's not an insignificant amount of money. At the same time, and I have discussed this in other videos, while cryptocurrency is heavily traded in Thailand, there are some who argue that mining it here may not be as optimal as mining it in other jurisdictions. I'm not really an expert on any of that; I can't really comment on that; I don't have the expertise. But long story short, I could see why people would say that. 

The other thing to bear in mind is if you're looking to come to Thailand and you view this as like a soft mark or something to be able to get free power effectively to be able to mine this kind of asset, this probably isn't the best jurisdiction to do that in, especially right now. Again, as I have discussed in other videos, Thai Police are heavily proactive, especially where they view that there may be some sort of foreign scam centre, foreign operation that is being operated here in Thailand to avoid the jurisdiction of other countries. Again, if you are looking to come here to sort of evade any type of regulation, this isn't the time. Thailand has really changed, especially in roughly the past 5 years, and under this current Government - especially as it pertains to foreign criminals - this is not a Government that is taking that type of thing lightly. 

So again, it remains to be seen how the cryptocurrency space evolves here in Thailand, but we will certainly be keeping folks updated on this channel as that situation evolves.