Thailand’s largest crypto exchange Bitkub has come under regulatory scrutiny from the country’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over fraud and artificial trading on its platform.
Thailand’s SEC has ordered legal action against a crypto exchange and two individuals have been involved in the trading of crypto platform washing, a process in which investors buy the same assets at the same time and increase the amount to control the market.
The latest enforcement action against a Thai crypto exchange will be the second penalty for a crypto exchange in three months. The chairman of Bitcube Capital Group Holdings, Sakolkorn Sakavi, was fined $216,000 and suspended from management at the company for one year in July this year.
According to an official statement issued by the SEC on September 27, the regulatory body filed a lawsuit against the crypto exchange and the two individuals, a civil penalty and costs of about $ 634,000 and a six-month trading ban for both.
Cointelegraph did not receive a response from Bitcube at the time of publication.
Bitcube is one of the leading crypto exchanges in Thailand with millions of daily transactions. However, the crypto exchange has been on the receiving end of regulatory measures in the past few months. The exchange’s chief technical officer, Samret Wajanasathian, was fined 8,530,383 baht ($234,000) in late August on insider trading charges.
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The crypto exchange suffered a major setback last month when Thailand’s oldest bank, Siam Commercial Bank, canceled its $500 million financing plan.
Thailand was once seen as one of the most crypto-progressive countries in the world, thanks to a regulated crypto market and tax breaks for crypto traders. However, several leading crypto exchanges have faced regulatory and compliance challenges in the country from time to time. Even the likes of Binance and Huobi have struggled with regulatory compliance.