Thailand’s Oldest Bank Stalling on Acquisition of Crypto Exchange

Thailand’s oldest bank is taking its time to consider the agreement it made to purchase the country’s largest cryptocurrency exchange last year. 

Bangkok-listed SCB X agreed to acquire a majority stake in Bitkub Online for 17.9 billion baht ($490 million) at the peak of the crypto markets last Nov, with the intention of closing the deal earlier this year.

Yet, amid conversations with regulators, SCB says there is still due diligence to be carried out. Last month, the Securities and Exchange Commission fined the company and its chief executive for creating “artificial trading volume” on its platform.

The company and five officials were also fined by the regulator in May, due to breaching guidelines when the company listed its own digital coins. SCB has not proposed a completion date for the proposed acquisition of Bitkub. 

SCB ambitions

Heightened regulatory scrutiny…