Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission (Thai SEC) has revoked the operating license of cryptocurrency exchange Huobi Thailand for regulatory violations, an official announcement revealed Wednesday.
For clarity, Huobi Thailand is not connected to Huobi, one of the biggest exchanges in the world. Huobi Thailand was established with the infrastructure provided by Huobi Cloud, Huobi’s blockchain solution provider that helps businesses without technical capabilities set up over-the-counter exchanges and other crypto-related services.
Huobi to Shut Down Thailand’s Office
This means Huobi Thailand will no longer be able to serve investors in the country and will shut down its operations on July 1.
According to the Thai SEC, the move comes after the crypto exchange failed to meet certain regulatory requirements. The regulator said it identified flaws in Huobi Thailand’s client asset retention systems, information technology systems, and trading systems between February and March last year.
Although the Commission notified and asked Huobi Thailand to fix its system flaws, the exchange failed to fulfill the regulator’s request despite receiving repeated deadline extensions up until the end of August 2021.
Thai SEC suspended the company’s services last September and revoked its license in May 2022. The regulator has also informed the exchange to return users’ digital assets.
Commenting on the matter, Huobi Thailand said it has been trying to contact its customers so they can withdraw their funds from the exchange.
“We have been trying our best efforts to contact all customers to withdraw assets. However, there are still an amount of out of reach customers,” the company said in a statement.
Huobi Thailand was one of the first set of crypto exchanges to receive a virtual asset provider license in Thailand in July 2019.
More Regulations on Crypto Exchanges
Although Thailand does not prohibit citizens from investing in crypto assets, it has continued to place stringent measures on crypto exchanges.
In June 2021, the Thai SEC issued a directive to crypto exchanges to stop the trade of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and memecoins, stating that they have no clear objectives or substance.
A few months ago, the regulator also said that crypto exchanges must not provide means to allow crypto assets to be used for payment of goods and services, noting that digital assets threaten the nation’s financial system and economy.
