Bitcoin can be stolen, but you can’t pay with it. That’s what follows from a ruling by Thailand’s Supreme Court that went viral this week.
The full court recognized $BTC
as property under criminal law, and in the same ruling cited the Bank of Thailand, for which crypto was never—and still isn’t—legal tender. Protection like property. Status: definitely not money.
The case itself took place in Samui, September 2022: a person was forced to transfer $50,000 in 2.480801 BTC and send it to the robbers. They were sentenced to 15 years. Then their sentence was reduced by a third, to 10.
And the juiciest part is the compensation: return the bitcoin or pay 1,878,000 baht. One option is calculated in coins, the other in baht at the time of the crime. So the court itself put two ways of measuring money side by side)
I’m not holding BTC right now. But if you were given the choice—which would you pick, bitcoin or baht?
#thailand #bitcoin
The full court recognized $BTC
as property under criminal law, and in the same ruling cited the Bank of Thailand, for which crypto was never—and still isn’t—legal tender. Protection like property. Status: definitely not money.
The case itself took place in Samui, September 2022: a person was forced to transfer $50,000 in 2.480801 BTC and send it to the robbers. They were sentenced to 15 years. Then their sentence was reduced by a third, to 10.
And the juiciest part is the compensation: return the bitcoin or pay 1,878,000 baht. One option is calculated in coins, the other in baht at the time of the crime. So the court itself put two ways of measuring money side by side)
I’m not holding BTC right now. But if you were given the choice—which would you pick, bitcoin or baht?
#thailand #bitcoin
