The app, WORPT, was developed by e-money provider Wipay and Waan Exchange, a digital asset exchange founded by Chaval Jiaravanon of Thailand’s billionaire Chearavanont family, Bloomberg reported. Tourists can spend the baht at shops and restaurants without needing a Thai bank account.
Wipay founder Pavin Jittiwongsamarn said the app is targeting crypto holders from South Korea, Japan, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. The company expects 200,000 users in its first year and projects 15 billion baht (US$442 million) in spending over the 18-month trial.
The rollout comes as Thailand, which relies heavily on tourism, heads for a second straight annual fall in foreign arrivals, with the government increasingly courting higher-spending visitors.
Arrivals fell 7.23% to 32.9 million in 2025. In the first 10 months of this year they dropped a further 4.59% year on year to 25.46 million, while foreign visitors’ spending slipped 2.85% to 1.24 trillion baht ($36.6 billion), according to Tourism and Sports Ministry figures.
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A street stall sells pad thai in Thailand. Photo by Unsplash/Antonia Perlinger |
Tourists deposit the stablecoins USDT and USDC in the app, convert them into baht and pay through Thai QR PromptPay, the country’s national QR payment system, workpointTODAY reported. Merchants receive baht as usual and never handle crypto.
A Visa prepaid card drawing on the same baht balance is also in the works, with a physical card slated for mid-November and a virtual version for early 2027, the Thai news site said. WORPT’s partners include Tether, which issues USDT, and Thai retailer The Mall Group.
The SEC approved Waan Exchange’s participation in the sandbox on Sept. 25 for 18 months, the developers said in a launch statement. Under the SEC’s rules, tourists must verify their identity with both the exchange and the e-money provider, and converted baht can only go into an e-wallet in their own name.
Thailand unveiled the sandbox, called TouristDigiPay, in August 2025, with the Finance Ministry saying the aim was to boost tourism rather than promote crypto as a means of payment. Bhutan introduced a similar crypto payment system for tourists the same year.