With regulatory uncertainty and pressure mounting in the U.S. especially, crypto companies are currently looking for other places they can build their businesses, with Thailand possibly being a viable option thanks to its latest tax law updates.

Recently, Thailand’s cabinet has approved a measure that will exempt corporate income tax and value-added tax (VAT) for companies that issue digital tokens for investment purposes, as first reported by Reuters.

This decision opens up new opportunities for companies to access alternative ways of raising capital through investment tokens, alongside traditional methods, and is expected to encourage further development of the crypto industry in the country.

According to government spokeswoman Rachada Dhnadirek, the decision is based on the government’s estimation that there will be 128 billion baht or $3.71 billion USD worth of investment token offerings over the next two years. The government also estimates that it will lose tax revenue worth 35 billion baht due to the tax exemption, which is nearly $1 billion USD.

The increasing popularity of crypto in Thailand is one of the factors that influenced the government’s decision, with relaxed taxation laws being implemented as early as last year to help promote increased growth.

Other areas of interest for the country could be the tokenization of real-world assets, according to comments at a World Economic Forum panel in January from the CEO of Thailand’s leading cryptocurrency exchange Bitkub.

The CEO, Jirayut “Topp” Srupsrisopa, shared that the Thai government is working on an “investment token” license, which would be separate from a crypto token license. He added that “tokenization will be the foundation of the digital economy going forward,” and that assets might include things like bonds, carbon credits, electricity units, foreign exchange markets, and more.

In additional comments on the latest news shared directly with Hypemoon, Srupsrisopa said that “we welcome the increasing involvement of the regulatory bodies in the digital asset space as we have always emphasized our customer-focused action plans,” he added that “the digital economy is rapidly evolving, and policy should adapt with it through a regulatory regime that is flexible enough to cope with current and future needs as they emerge — all informed by input by stakeholders and the public.”

While Thailand’s government has been supportive of the growth of the cryptocurrency industry, the country’s central bank and other regulators have been more cautious. As a result, some areas of growth have been retraced, like the ban on the use of digital assets as a means of payment, citing concerns over the impact on the country’s financial stability and the overall economy.

The latest decision to wave taxes however is a hopeful one that might bring in a variety of new foreign investors and put the country on track to be a popular destination for crypto companies to operate from.

In other news, the crypto industry has begun to shift out of the U.S. according to Ripple’s CEO.