Thailand to issue $150M of tokenized government bonds

As part of a move to make investments more accessible, Thailand will be issuing $150 million of government bonds, which are being digitised for the general public. The Southeast Asian nation’s Ministry of Finance will organise the bond issuance.

Announcing the tokenized bonds, which will be known as G-tokens, Pichai Chunhavajira, the Finance Minister, said that the tokens will be used to raise funds for the government, adding that they will conform to the current budget plan and enable the public to buy bonds for personal wealth creation.

“The public can buy the bonds at an affordable price. The bonds will allow the public to earn more than a savings account at a local bank,” Chunhavajira said.

Thailand banks currently offer savings accounts with around 1.5% interest.

The G-token will only be available to Thai citizens and will be offered on licensed crypto exchanges. The initial offering of $150 million is worth around 5 billion baht.

Chunhavajira also noted that this was just the beginning and if this initial offering went well, then the Ministry of Finance would issue more bonds for the public.

The G-token is neither a cryptocurrency nor a form of currency. As the government is releasing the G-token as an investment option for the public, it will be interesting to see how this move to combine the benefits of low threshold investing with digitised assets will turn out. While many members of the public may not be interested in government bonds, they may buy digitised bonds that they can buy on a crypto exchange. The offering of G-tokens may also introduce many younger traders to the world of bond trading.

With the current trade disruptions and economic shortfalls after the pandemic, bond trading may be a sensible option for traders. Public members will be able to buy G-tokens for as little as 100 baht, roughly $3. The Bank of Thailand helped draft the bond issuance plan. The low G-tokens threshold will allow low-income people to afford the investment.

The release of the G-tokens will take place some time in the next two months. Usually, government bonds are released at a much higher amount, such as 40 billion baht, which is significantly more than the G-token amount of only 5 billion baht.

Patchara Anuntasilpa, the director general of public debt, said that the G-tokens were not a form of traditional debt instruments, but rather were part of a plan to improve the country’s budget borrowing plan and to make financial investments more accessible for the general public.

The bond market has traditionally been limited to wealthy traders and businesses. This government-backed plan will improve accessibility for retail traders. It may also be a good opportunity for regular citizens to use digital assets. The bond offering may improve the general public’s financial literacy, which has the added benefit of protecting retail traders from scammers.

In January, former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, father of current prime minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, announced that the government should start issuing its own stablecoins.

According to Shinawatra, he believes that the stock market has suffered due to the public losing trust in financial institutions. He suggested that the government should focus on clamping down on corruption so that people can regain their confidence in the stock market.