Table of Contents
Don’t mess with Thailand’s SEC is the message from Tuesday. In an official notice, the body announced Bitkub Chief Technology Officer Samret Wajanasathian was ordered to pay a fine of 8.5 million Thai baht for insider trading.
Wajanasathian has also been barred from holding an executive position for 12 months and has since been removed from the company’s website.
Bitkub had previously been fined for failing to comply with Thai regulations before listing the platform’s native token KUB.
According to the SEC, Wajanasathian acted on insider knowledge and bought 1.99 million Thai baht worth of KUB token ahead of its price doubling upon public announcement.
Read more: Regulatory Issues Scuppers SCB’s Takeover of Thai Exchange Bitkub.
The insider-trading case stems from an incident from last November, when the SCB acquisition plan was first announced. According to the SEC, Wajanasathian – armed with this information – bought 1.99 million Thai baht (roughly US$61,000 at the time) worth of the KUB token. The price of KUB subsequently more than doubled immediately upon the public announcement.
Last week Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) withdrew plans to purchase a majority of Bitkub, citing unresolved issues with the securities regulator.
Thailand has been increasing scrutiny on the crypto space, which is continuing to grow in the region. Last year, the regulator published a series of new regulations for crypto businesses, and recently issued new guidelines to govern custody of digital assets held by cryptocurrency operators.
