A digital wallet app called WORPT has launched in Thailand under the Tourist DigiPay regulatory sandbox, letting foreign visitors convert USDT and USDC into baht and pay local merchants through the country's PromptPay QR network. Merchants receive baht through standard payment systems, not crypto.
WORPT was built by Waan Exchange, a digital asset exchange approved by Thailand's Securities and Exchange Commission, and Wipay, an e-money provider regulated by the Bank of Thailand. A physical Visa prepaid card is planned for mid-November and a virtual card for early 2027, which would let users spend the same baht balance in shops and online.
The announcement does not give user numbers, conversion limits, fees or the merchants where it works. The sandbox rules still apply, so the app operates inside the limits the regulators set for the pilot.
The design follows the logic Blockhead described in August, when Thailand's zero-tax crypto exemption was read as a capital control . That piece noted that the Bank of Thailand's ban on crypto as a means of payment for goods and services remains, and that the tourist scheme works around the ban by converting crypto into baht before it reaches a merchant. Thailand's stated aim is to treat crypto as a supervised investment asset and to channel tourist use through licensed intermediaries.
The program itself dates back more than a year. Blockhead reported in August 2025 that Thailand debuted its digital asset payment program for tourists , as the government looked to revive a sector hit by fewer Chinese visitors.
Thailand's regulators have been tightening around the same stablecoin rails at the same time, with Blockhead's August report noting a stablecoin audit, cash-disclosure rules and a crackdown on foreign USDT sellers. A sandbox app that settles in baht, through two licensed Thai firms, fits inside that approach.
The outbound version of the same idea has already reached Singapore. Blockhead reported in April that KBank let Thai travellers pay Singapore merchants through GrabPay QR , with settlement on-chain through StraitsX's XSGD stablecoin under a Bank of Thailand sandbox.
Separately, Thailand's Supreme Court ruled this week that bitcoin qualifies as property, in a case involving the forced transfer of 2.48 BTC, worth about $50,000, during a 2022 robbery on Koh Samui. The court upheld a 10-year sentence and ordered the bitcoin returned or compensation of 1.878 million baht. Reports of the ruling stress that property status does not make bitcoin money or require merchants to accept it.
The sandbox app tests whether tourists will use stablecoins when a licensed intermediary hides the conversion. The next signals are the Visa card in mid-November, any disclosed volumes, and where Thailand's regulators land with the permanent rules after the sandbox.
