Pi Coin in Thailand: licensed exchanges, tax and what is reachable

Thailand attracts crypto-curious expats, and Pi Coin (PI), the native token of Pi Network, is no exception. The regulatory picture is the opposite of loose, though. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of Thailand licenses a short list of domestic exchanges, blocked several offshore ones in 2025 and offers a tax exemption that only works on licensed venues. For PI that creates a gap: the licensed side does not list it, and the offshore side is the part the SEC is trying to close.

Is Pi Coin legal in Thailand?

Holding PI is not prohibited by anything I found, and I located no Thai SEC alert naming Pi. One media claim that “Thailand warns about Pi” could not be confirmed, so I leave it out. The IOSCO alert database does show a Thai SEC alert for “Bee Network”, which is a different project from Pi. The law that matters is the Emergency Decree on Digital Asset Businesses B.E. 2561 (2018), which requires a licence for anyone running an exchange, brokerage, dealing or custodial wallet business for Thai users.

The licensed list, and what it can do for you

The SEC’s licensee page, which I read on 12 October 2026, is undated and not a news release, so treat it as the current register. It lists these exchanges, with the brokers, dealers and custodians that sit around them.

Brokers include InnovestX, Bitazza, Coins TH, Maxbit, Satoshi, Tokenomics and XSpring. ERX, reported to be KuCoin Thailand after a rebrand, did not appear in the list text I fetched, a discrepancy I could not resolve. I did not open the SEC’s separate approved-token list, which is the right place to check whether a coin may be offered to Thai users. None of these exchanges is on Pi’s KYB list, so even a Thai listing would not automatically mean PI can be withdrawn to Pi mainnet.

The 2025 offshore blocks and the 2026 follow-up

The decree took effect on 13 April 2025, and the SEC announced it would block Bybit, OKX, CoinEx, 1000X and XT.COM from 28 June 2025 for operating without a licence, according to The Block. Whether the blocks are fully effective today I could not confirm. In 2026 the SEC filed a criminal complaint on 9 January against five people for unlicensed dealing and, on 21 August, issued consultation papers on wider access and tighter custody, based on a Tilleke & Gibbins summary I could only see in part.

The 2029 capital gains tax holiday and its fine print

Thailand’s most distinctive feature is Ministerial Regulation No. 399. Personal income tax on capital gains from digital assets sold between 1 January 2025 and 31 December 2029 is exempt, but only for sales through SEC-licensed operators, according to Forvis Mazars. Companies are excluded. Income from mining, staking and airdrop-type rewards stays taxable. One law-firm summary omits the licensed-operator condition, so read the Revenue Department regulation or ask an adviser rather than rely on a headline.

Sale on a licensed Thai exchange

Within the exemption window, gains are exempt for individuals.

Sale on an offshore or P2P venue

Outside the exemption as summarised, so potentially taxable like other income.

PI claimed in the Pi app

Not addressed in anything I read. Mining-type income is taxable under the summary, but whether app claiming counts is for an adviser to say.

This is why the tax holiday is of limited help to Pioneers: the venue it rewards is the one that does not list PI.

Where PI can actually be traded from Thailand

The four platforms that list PI each handle Thailand differently. Bitget’s terms of use name Thailand as a prohibited country, and Gate’s restricted-locations page includes it. OKX’s own disclosure does not mention Thailand, but the SEC block reported above names OKX. MEXC does not classify Thailand as restricted, but I found no sign that it is licensed in Thailand, so trades there would sit outside the tax exemption and the SEC’s customer protections. Kraken’s availability is unverified. See the individual reviews of OKX and MEXC, and the exchange listing status for the combined picture.

How to read the SEC list before you deposit

The licensee page groups businesses by type, and the type matters. An exchange matches buyers and sellers and can list tokens; a broker routes your orders to an exchange; a dealer trades against you; and a custodial wallet operator holds assets for you. A business licensed as a broker is not an exchange, and a firm with a “digital asset” word in its name may hold none of these licences. Search the legal company name in Thai or English, note which licence type appears, and then check the SEC’s approved-token information to see whether the asset you want is allowed. If PI is not on that list, a licensed Thai exchange cannot offer it to Thai users, whatever a blog says.

Bear in mind that the SEC can also act against promotion. The consultation papers dated 21 August 2026, as summarised by Tilleke & Gibbins, are about widening access to digital assets while tightening custody, which suggests the direction is more licensed products, not fewer rules. That is my reading of a partial summary, so treat it as a pointer to the primary documents.

Living in or visiting Thailand

For visitors, the TouristDigiPay sandbox announced in August 2025 lets foreigners convert crypto into baht for QR payments through licensed services, as reported by Nation Thailand. It does not make crypto legal tender, and I did not verify that PI would be accepted. Thai baht settlement and PromptPay or bank transfers are the standard local rails on licensed exchanges, though I did not verify each exchange’s methods.

If you hold PI in the Pi app, the safest local activity is no activity: finish KYC, migrate, store PI in the Pi Wallet and read the wallet guide for ways to keep it safe.

Routes ranked by risk, honestly

1. Hold in the Pi app or Pi Wallet. No SEC licence question, no tax event, and the downside is price: around US$0.08 on 12 October 2026 per CoinMarketCap and CoinGecko.
2. Sell abroad, convert to a stablecoin, then use a licensed Thai exchange to reach baht. Each step has a platform and compliance cost, and offshore platforms may exclude you.
3. Use an IOU product. CEX.IO describes its Pi [IOU] as a placeholder for future Pi Network tokens; it is not on Pi’s KYB list (checked 12 October 2026), requires ID verification and does not state on that page whether Thailand is served. It is not PI you can withdraw.
4. Use an unlicensed platform. Possible technically, but outside the tax exemption and exposed to blocking.

Questions a Thai tax adviser will ask you

Before you rely on the exemption, expect questions that decide the answer. Were the digital assets sold through a licensed Thai operator, and do you have the contract notes to prove it? Were you a Thai tax resident in the year of sale, and did you bring the income into Thailand in that or a later year? Did you receive the PI as a reward for mining, referrals or app activity rather than buying it? Do you hold the PI personally or through a company, which the exemption excludes? These are not Thai Revenue Department rulings; they are the questions that follow from the conditions in the summaries I read, and the answers should be written down with dates while you still remember them.

What to watch. The SEC’s August 2026 consultations and the plan reported for stablecoin monitoring from the fourth quarter of 2026 may change access, and Pi’s own protocol upgrades may change what exchanges support. For the regional comparison, see the Asia regulation overview and the Malaysia guide; for the selling mechanics, read how to sell Pi Coin.

Updated: October 12, 2026