After months of negotiations between Thailand’s oldest lender, SCBX, and crypto exchange Bitkub, it appears that the lender is pulling out of a $500 million take-over deal earlier agreed, citing regulatory issues as its reason for the action.
According to a statement from SCBX, “Bitkub is currently embroiled in a number of regulatory issues and is working with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Thailand to resolve the issues.” The lender added that while the exchange is doing all it can to resolve the issue, they haven’t been provided with a definite time frame for which things would be sorted out.
Since there is no headway at the moment, both parties have now decided to terminate earlier arrangements.
SCBX’s stand
SCBX had expressed intentions to buy the crypto exchange a few months ago and has been working with all parties involved to make the deal happen. Representatives from the lender added that it had conducted due diligence on the exchange and hadn’t spotted anything abnormal about its activities.
Despite earlier agreements, SCBX is backtracking on the move after the Thai Security and Exchange Commission petitioned the crypto exchange to review its listing process following the listing of the KUB coin a few months ago.
It should be recalled that SCBX had, in principle, agreed to buy 51% shares of Bitkub, a deal reportedly worth 17.85 billion baht($497.77). The deal was the company’s inroad into the bubbling crypto space. Despite the current setback, SCBX isn’t relenting in its decision to sojourn into the crypto space. It added that it is committed to expanding its business into the blockchain and digital assets arena.
While SCBX has been very upfront on the reason for pulling out of the deal, Bitkub hasn’t released any official comment. More so, requests for comments have not been returned.
