Thailand’s SEC Probing Potential Losses for Users of Crypto Platform Zipmex Users After Suspended Withdrawals

Thailand's Securities and Exchange Commission said on Monday it was working with law enforcement to look into potential losses among the public after the crypto exchange Zipmex temporarily suspended withdrawals last week.

The SEC said in a statement it was asking impacted users of Zipmex to submit information via an online forum on how they had been affected by the problems at the platform.

The Southeast Asia-focused cryptocurrency exchange, which operates in Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore and Australia, suspended withdrawals last Wednesday.

Withdrawals resumed on the same evening in Thailand and later on in other countries, except for transfers from one investment product, which the company later said had exposure worth $53 million (roughly Rs. 420 crore) in crypto lenders, Babel Finance and Celsius.

Celsius and Babel Finance are among crypto players that have fallen into difficulties in recent months.

Late on Monday, the SEC's board ordered Zipmex to open trade according to trading rules within three days, including allowing withdrawals and deposits, it said in another statement.

The announcements come as crypto trading in Thailand has slowed and after Thai lender SCB X Pcl said it was extending the due diligence period for its $537 million (roughly Rs. 4,300 crore) acquisition of Thai crypto exchange, Bitkub.

Zipmex is the latest crypto firm to face difficulties following a sharp sell-off in markets that started in May with the collapse of two paired tokens, Luna and TerraUSD.

Zipmex holds a digital asset exchange and a digital asset broker license, the SEC website https://www.sec.or.th/en/pages/shortcut/digitalasset.aspx shows. At the weekend, the company said in a Facebook post it was exploring a deal with an "interested party."

© Thomson Reuters 2022