Thailand's SEC accuses Bitkub of hiding 2021 hack
Security & Exploits ·
Thailand's securities regulator has lodged a criminal complaint against the exchange and two former executives over a cyberattack it says was never properly disclosed.
The Securities and Exchange Commission alleges that Bitkub, along with former directors Sakolkorn Sakavee and Thaweesap Rawan, withheld details of a May 2021 breach in which roughly 1.7 billion baht, or about $50 million, in digital assets was stolen, according to CoinDesk. A separate account of the filing puts the undisclosed theft at $47 million, underscoring some variance in how the loss has been reported across outlets covering the case, per Decrypt.
The regulator's complaint centers on the company's paperwork rather than the hack itself. Investigators say 16 separate digital assets were drained from Bitkub during the intrusion, and that the two former directors submitted false statements in official filings meant to keep the SEC informed. The core accusation is not that Bitkub lost customer funds, but that it misrepresented the episode in the reports it was required to file at the time.
Notably, the exchange and the regulator had already resolved the financial side of the incident: Bitkub and the SEC covered the losses in full by the end of October 2021. It was only afterward, during a review of that period's disclosures, that the SEC concluded the incident had not been reported accurately, prompting the current criminal referral.
The complaint has been sent to the Economic Crime Suppression Division, which will conduct a police investigation before any decision on public prosecution. That process could take considerable time, and no charges have been formally confirmed beyond the referral itself.
Bitkub, described as Thailand's largest crypto exchange with 24-hour trading volume exceeding $500 million, had not responded to a request for comment as of the initial reporting. Left unresolved are how the ECD investigation will proceed, whether prosecutors ultimately pursue charges against the exchange or the individuals named, and how the discrepancy between the $50 million and $47 million figures cited across reports will be reconciled as the case moves forward.