FTX Crash Makes Thailand’s Investors approach local cryptocurrency exchanges

The ongoing crypto winter, and FTX’s bankruptcy, have caused investors to become apprehensive about the future scenario. Investors in Thailand seem to be the worst affected. Therefore, many, especially those who have incurred losses, are moving away from international cryptocurrency exchanges. 

Instead, they are transferring their trust to local exchanges. Thus, these trading hubs are gaining good breathing space even in the highly distressed marketplace. Other than this, if you want to invest in bitcoins, then you can visit online trading platforms like https://qumasai.org/.

Even here, they are ensuring that the selected platforms are adhering to local regulations. Regardless, the circulating scandals about cryptocurrency exchanges have served to erode people’s trust in the cryptocurrency industry. According to CoinGecko, the data compiler, trading volumes suffered a plunge of 79% in 2022. Even the tightening of macroeconomic conditions did not help. Amid all this chaos, however, one organization – Bitkub – stood unchallenged and dominant. 

Bitkub

Crypto enthusiasts in Thailand revere Bitkub, the local cryptocurrency exchange, as a market leader. It did suffer for some time during the alternating bullish and bearish trends. However, it came back to normal soon enough, as declared by Athakrit Chimplapibul. He is the CEO of Bitkub Online. 

Bitkub Then

Chimplapibul stated that the trading volume had always been in alignment with global trends. It was why 2022 had been a year of lowered profits and revenue. 

Nonetheless, he had faith that 2023 would prove to be a good year. After all, Bitkub had displayed an astounding trading volume of $139 billion on the day that Binance refused to bail out FTX. Unfortunately, once FTX collapsed, Bitkub suffered.

In the first half of 2022, Bitkub fell victim to stringent scrutiny. The authorities doubted whether the company was adhering to regulations or not. 

An executive was fined and banned from occupying a high position on the exchange. This individual could not apply for a position in any company dealing with digital assets, either. It was because he had been indulging in insider trading of the native coin belonging to Bitkub. 

Similarly, the deal that Bitkub had entered with Thailand’s oldest bank fell through in August 2022. Sam Commercial Bank had applied for a 51% acquisition of Bitkub. 

The agreement was worth $530 million (17.8 billion baht). If it had gone through, it would have made the cryptocurrency exchange the second unicorn of Thailand. Instead, legal actions against the organization caused the deal that was initiated in November 2021 to fail.

Bitkub Now

Bitkub has returned with a flourish! By grossing $63 million within an average of seven days, the exchange has returned to what it was before November 2022. It is in line with Bitcoin, the world’s favourite cryptocurrency. It had lost $2 trillion from its peak market capitalization due to the ongoing crypto winter. 

Now, it is valued at $20,000 (a 40% gain from the previous year). The pricing had dropped to $16,452 in November 2022. All the statistics are available on the trading and investment website Bitcoin smart.

Bitkub’s market share progressed to 75.4%, giving Thailand’s investors fresh hope. Furthermore, the other famous local exchange, Zipmex, was going through a liquidity crunch. The crunch was caused by the company’s links with Celsius and Babel Finance. They are global cryptocurrency exchanges. 

Other Cryptocurrency Exchanges

Below is a list of some other crypto exchanges:

Zipmex

Since customers are waiting to receive their funds, Zipmex has agreed to a sale. It has offered a minority stake to a Bangkok-listed firm. This is the venture capital arm of Thoresen Thai Agencies. 

Probably, Zipmex has no choice, for the trading volumes have plunged terribly since July 2022. Marketplace volatility left investors lamenting about losses worth 600+ million baht. It prompted the Securities and Exchange Commission, Thailand, to claim higher reserves. The lowest is five million baht. Even the custody rule for companies dealing in cryptocurrencies has been tightened. By the end of 2022, Zipmex registered a market share worth 14.78%.

Bitazza

It is a new cryptocurrency exchange, launched just three months before Zipmex encountered trouble. Despite being a new entry, the company registered a trading volume of $238.5 million in the first month. June 2022 saw the figure approach $473 million. However, by the end of the year, its market share had diminished to 8.52%, taking third place.

Experts have urged the SEC to initiate measures to prevent system failures. Merely building reserves will not improve matters.