About 1.75 million Myanmar citizens worked in Thailand officially in October 2023 (AMRO). A study by the Institute for Strategic Policy, reported by Thai PBS World in September 2026, says 93% of Myanmar remitters in Thailand used informal channels (IOM's 2024 survey), 60% used hundi agents, and about 68% of Myanmar's informal remittances come from Thailand. Hundi costs about 2.5%, against about 10% at banks in the past. The kyat has lost about 80% against the dollar since 2021.
Myanmar's Labour Ministry ordered overseas workers in 2023 to send 25% of earnings home through approved banks at a fixed rate; one worker reported 2,940 kyat per dollar against a market rate of 3,500 (Radio Free Asia). In May 2024 the Central Bank of Myanmar warned against unregulated digital currencies and acted against hundi transfers made with USDT (Tilleke & Gibbins).
In Thailand, USDT trades on licensed exchanges from 16 March 2025, and the SEC's September 2026 proposal would limit stablecoin transfers to the customer's own verified wallets.
Speed: years
Where banks cost four times what a hundi agent does and a home currency keeps falling, money moves through people. USDT is one more rail on the same route; both governments are narrowing it from their side.