It was stated today that Thailand’s SCBX, the holding company for the Siam Commercial Bank (SCB), has canceled its agreement to purchase a 51% share in the cryptocurrency exchange Bitkub for the equivalent of $499 million in Thai Baht 17,850 million.
In accordance with the terms of the agreement, SCBS was going to collaborate with Bitkub as a business partner in order to develop an ecosystem for digital assets that would include a digital asset exchange as one of the national-level infrastructures.
The explanation that has been provided by the company as the reason why it scrapped the deal is that Thailand’s financial authority, the Securities and Exchange Commission, has asked that Bitkub rectify several regulatory difficulties; however, it is unknown how long this process will take. The acquirer, SCB Securities (SCBS), claims that the decision to discontinue the acquisition was made with the consent of both parties.
The company said:
“Bitkub is currently in the process of resolving various issues as per the recommendations and orders of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Thailand, which are uncertain in terms of timeframe in resolving those issues.”
The bank also said that it was dedicated to strategic goals that included expanding into industries that were related to blockchain technology and digital assets.
One month prior to the public announcement of the Bitkub acquisition, SCB made an important restructuring announcement in which the new holding company SCBX was created. Arthid Nanthawithaya, who was CEO and Chairman of the company at the time, said that it was essential to join this new arena of competition as early as possible in order to survive in the following three to five years.
