Thai banking group SCB refuses to buy Bitkub crypto exchange

The company was planning to buy a 51% share of the platform at a price of $496 million

25.08.2022 - 15:00

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What’s new? Thailand's oldest banking group has cancelled a deal to buy the Bitkub cryptocurrency exchange. SCB X, the parent company of the country's fourth-largest bank, Siam Commercial Bank, was planning to buy a 51% share of the platform at a price of 17,8 billion baht ($496 million). The deal valued Bitkub at 35 billion baht ($976.6 million). SCB notified the Stock Exchange of Thailand to terminate the deal, citing regulatory measures the exchange had faced in recent months, Nikkei Asia reported.

Nikkei Asia's material

What else is known about the termination of the deal? According to a statement from SCB X, the results of the due diligence did not reveal any significant problems that cannot be fixed. However, Bitkub is in the process of solving various problems in accordance with the recommendations and orders of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Thailand (SEC), and it is difficult to determine the timeline for fixing them at the moment, which was the reason for the termination of the deal. Bitkub said in a statement that it did not affect the platform's business operations.

Bitkub was founded in 2018 in Bangkok. The exchange is a legally registered company with an authorized capital of 80 million baht ($2,2 billion). The platform's native token is Bitkub Coin (KUB). As of August 25, 14:25 UTC, the asset is trading at $1,76, down 13,46% in 24 hours. Bitkub had a daily trading volume of $253 million in November 2021, but it has since fallen to $48 million, according to CoinMarketCap.

On July 1, the SEC of Thailand revoked the license of Huobi, the local unit of the cryptocurrency exchange. This came after the platform failed to bring its systems and staff into compliance.

In August, investment firm Galaxy Digital backed out of buying cryptocurrency custodian BitGo. The $1,2 billion deal was announced last year but was terminated after BitGo failed to provide 2021 audited financial statements compliant with the agreement by July 31, 2022.

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