Thailand's Top Stock Market Adds Blockchain Funding Market

Thailand's national stock exchange has launched a new blockchain-powered component for startups.

The Stock Exchange of Thailand has launched a crowdfunding marketplace that is built on blockchain technology in a bid to widen the access to capital funds for domestic startups.

According to an announcement from the Stock Exchange of Thailand on Friday, the new service, dubbed LiVE, uses blockchain to enable peer-to-peer trading in an effort to help startups access new capital from investors, including those drawn from the venture capital and institutional investor worlds.

SET officials said that so far, eight companies have joined the blockchain platform, with another 50 companies scheduled to participate in the initiative.

SET's President Kesara Manchusree said in the announcement.

"'LiVE' platform will be a key mechanism to help drive forward Thailand's growth especially enabling startups and SMEs to have more financial accesses through crowdfunding.

As CoinDesk previously reported, the SET began planning to build a crowdfunding platform for startups in March of last year.

Other stock exchanges in the world, such as the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, are also looking to blockchain as a means to develop securities markets for smaller businesses.

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