Thailand issues $1.6 billion in government bonds on Blockchain

Thailand issues $1.6 billion in government bonds on Blockchain

Thailand is the first Southeast Asian country to issue bonds based on the decentralized technology Blockchain.

On October 5th, 2020, IBM Corporation made an official announcement that Thai central bank used their Blockchain technology to develop a platform to issue the world’s first government bonds.

Within two weeks of the launch of the platform, Thai central bank sold more than the amount of bonds worth $1.6 billion USD, statisticized by their partner IBM.

According to the announcement, thanks to the use of blockchain technology, the time to issue bonds has been shortened from 15 days to only 2 days. Increasing the efficiency of the process has also helped reduce operating costs and avoid redundancy of documents related to bond issues.

This partnership of Thailand’s central bank, except to IBM, also has 7 other partners from different organizations such as Public Debt Management Office, Thai Securities Depository, and Bond Market Association. Thai coupons and four other banks.

The Bank of Thailand may soon expand the use of blockchain technology on all other government-issued bonds to retail and institutional investors.

Thailand has been actively participating in the blockchain space and money 4.0. 

In June, the bank launched a test of the central bank’s digital currency (CBDC) – or digital baht, to test it against large-scale businesses. . The following month, the bank is also reportedly planning to use its digital currency to transact with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority.

In addition, the Bank of Thailand is also pursuing smart contracts and decentralized financial use cases for its national digital currency.