The company that owns Thailand’s Siam Commercial Bank has delayed a deal to buy a controlling stake in the country’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, BitCup. The decision was made against the backdrop of tight digital currency regulations that limit the growth of domestic cryptocurrency trading. SCB X, the parent company of Siam Commercial Bank, filed its bid for 17.85 billion baht ($487 million) to buy 51 percent of Bitcoin on Thailand’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.
As Thailand’s laws continue to hinder the growth of cryptocurrency trading, the kingdom’s oldest lender has put the deal on hold indefinitely, Nikkei Asia reported, citing Financial Group. “We made it clear in our report to the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) that the deal is still under consideration,” a senior SCB X official said on condition of anonymity. He added: we do not know when this agreement will be signed. In early July, the company told the SET that the matter was still under discussion with regulators and that the completion date had been extended. SCB X first announced its intention to buy Bitcoin shares last November.
Also, earlier this month, the SEC called for sanctions against Sakulkarn Sakavi, chairman of Bitcube Investment Group Holdings. He was accused of falsifying information about the volume of transactions with digital assets on the stock exchange. Sakulkorn was fined 8 million baht ($218,000) and banned from holding executive positions in the company for a year. In response to the strict laws in Thailand, Pitcup tried to move to Vietnam. Sakulkaren noted that the destination has a very friendly environment for cryptocurrency trading. Last spring, BitCup partnered with a Vietnamese startup to launch a private blockchain operator called CupTech. The latter is expected to soon become a trading platform for digital assets.
