Confirmed: Thailand’s Supreme Court treated bitcoin as property in a criminal robbery case. That is a property ruling, not a currency redesignation.
Watcher Guru posted on October 28 that the court recognized bitcoin as legal property. CoinDesk’s October 29 report says a Koh Samui victim was forced in 2022 to convert about $50,000 into roughly 2.48 BTC. A defendant argued bitcoin was not valuable enough to count as property. The full bench disagreed.
CoinDesk quotes the court’s summary: bitcoin has a market price, can be exchanged for cash when a buyer is available, and can be held by the public. The judges cited Thailand’s 2018 digital-asset decree and still weighed a Bank of Thailand letter saying cryptocurrency is not legal tender. ForkLog and Crypto Briefing via TradingView report the same outcome, including a 10-year sentence that was upheld.
The court ordered the bitcoin returned, or compensation if it could not be. CoinDesk notes the trial court had started at 15 years and cut the term by a third because the defendant helped the case.
The skeptical read: property status helps theft and restitution cases. It does not make bitcoin legal tender in Thailand, and it does not tell foreign courts what to do. Watch whether Thai spot ETF products and enforcement practice follow the same logic.
Read the Watcher Guru post on the Thai ruling
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