Benzinga | Jun 12, 2021 04:14PM EDT

Dogecoin Not Cute Enough For Thailand, Country Bans All Meme Coins, NFTs

Thailand has banned all meme tokens, fan tokens, exchange tokens and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), the country's Securities and Exchange Commission said in a statement Friday.

What Happened: The Thai SEC didn't specifically mention the high-profile cryptocurrency Dogecoin (DOGE), which is expected to fall under the category of meme tokens, CoinDesk, which first reported the news, noted.

See Also: How to Buy Dogecoin (DOGE)

Dogecoin, created as a joke in late 2013, is up 5456% in 2021, as of press time -- the highest among the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. The meme coin has found a major backer in Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk.

The Thai regulator described meme cryptocurrencies as ones whose price is primarily driven by social indicators and have no clear objective or substance on their own.

Fan tokens representing ownership of voting rights or access to club-specific rewards and services are also now banned in Thailand, CoinDesk noted. An exception would be fan tokens used for goods and services like VIP experiences.

NFTs, another hot trend of 2021, also stand banned, alongside cryptocurrencies issued by exchange desks like Binance, Uniswap, and FTX for on-platform benefits.

Price Action: Dogecoin traded 1.7% lower at $0.3149 at press time on Sunday.

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