Thailand SEC Files Criminal Complaint Against Bitkub Over $47M Undisclosed Hack
Thailand’s SEC has filed a criminal complaint against crypto exchange Bitkub and two former directors, alleging false reporting after a 2021 hack that led to a $47 million digital-asset theft.
The complaint, lodged with Thailand’s Economic Crime Suppression Division, centers on a May 2021 cyberattack in which 16 types of assets worth 1.7 billion baht (about $47 million) were drained from Bitkub. From May to October 2021, the SEC says Bitkub’s daily net-capital filings failed to show the losses, potentially breaching Thailand’s Digital Asset Business Decree.
The two accused directors are Sakolkorn Sakavee and Thaweesap Rawan. The SEC alleges they made false entries to mislead the regulator into believing customer assets remained intact. The case is now set to move to police and prosecutors to decide whether to bring charges to court.
Bitkub denies wrongdoing affecting customers. It says all customer assets are safe and that the founders covered the stolen funds using personal money, replacing assets in the same amounts. Bitkub also claims the company confirmed its holdings were intact as of September 2025.
In a separate video statement, Sakolkorn reportedly said he altered the filings himself and withheld disclosure to prevent panic withdrawals and a “bank run.”
The dispute comes as Bitkub seeks a public listing, after it was overtaken locally by Binance’s Thailand arm.
Bearish
This is a compliance-and-governance shock for a major Thailand exchange. A Thailand SEC criminal complaint against Bitkub over an undisclosed $47M hack raises the risk premium around exchange reporting practices, governance, and potential legal/operational disruption. In the short term, such actions often trigger trader risk-off sentiment: reduced confidence in local custodians, wider bid-ask spreads for related markets, and more capital moving to exchanges with cleaner regulatory optics.
For Bitkub specifically, criminal proceedings can prolong uncertainty around leadership, listings, and banking relationships, which may pressure volumes and liquidity. In the longer term, regulators tightening disclosure requirements could benefit the healthiest platforms, but the immediate effect is usually negative for the targeted firm.
Traders should watch for follow-through: whether prosecutors file charges, any court-imposed restrictions, and whether customers transfer assets out or trading volumes shift toward Binance TH or other venues. Similar past exchange-related enforcement actions have tended to be bearish initially due to headline risk, even when the company later claims user funds were restored.