A cafe in north-east Thailand has become home to cryptocurrency traders, with banks of screens showing the latest market movement and dishing out investment advice alongside coffee and cake.
Behind a calm exterior of cherry blossom trees, customers of HIP Coffee & Restaurant stare at their laptops, supping nervously on iced coffee – part of a surging interest in digital assets in Thailand that has regulators worried.
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The logo of Bitkub, one of Thailand's leading cryptocurrency exchanges, in a cup served at HIP Coffee & Restaurant in the country's Ratchasima province. All photos: Reuters -
The cafe has dozens of screens showing the latest cryptocurrency trends and prices of digital tokens. -
HIP Coffee & Restaurant, which has been around since 2013, underwent a cryptocurrency makeover in 2020. -
People pass their time at HIP Coffee & Restaurant. -
A Bitcoin logo at the cafe.
"It's exciting for me to be here because I get to meet people who share the same interests," said crypto trader Detnarong Satianphut, 35.
"We [traders] get to exchange information because in the trading world we are coming up against millions of people."
Cryptocurrencies have been gaining momentum in Thailand, with as much as 251 billion baht ($7.6 billion) in digital asset traded in November, according to the latest official data.
Earlier this month, Thailand said it would start to regulate the use of digital assets as payments, warning of potential risks to financial stability and the overall economic system.
HIP cafe, which has been around since 2013, got its crypto makeover in 2020.
Since then, according to staff, its customers have doubled. Manager Oakkharawat Yongsakuljinda said the cafe provides alternative investment opportunities for people in the surrounding Nakhon Ratchasima province.
It offers free investment consulting and is planning on starting its own cryptocurrency.
Its customers say trading in the cafe offers them the best chance of success in a volatile market, in which the most well known cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, hit six-month lows this week.
Apakon Putnok, 23, said: "Having so many screens helps a lot ... We immediately know and get to analyse crashing factors and whether we should buy."
