Siam Commercial Bank Acquires 51% Stake in Crypto Exchange Bitkub

Upon receiving regulatory permission, Siam Commercial Bank (SCB), Thailand’s second biggest bank, stated that its Securities subsidiary would purchase 51 percent of cryptocurrency exchange Bitkub for Thai Baht 17,850 million ($537 million). Bitkub is a Thai company that is controlled by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and has a market share of 92 percent, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SCB).

The digital assets exchange recorded trading volumes of one trillion Thai Baht ($30 billion) for the nine months ending September 30, revenues of THB 3,279 million ($99 million), and a net profit of THB 1,533 million ($46 million) for the nine months ending September 30. According to current estimates, the acquisition will close in the first quarter of 2022.

A major restructure was announced by the bank in October, in which it repositioned itself as a technology corporation and established a new holding company, SCBX. A joint venture investment fund for blockchain, digital assets, and FinTech was established with Thai conglomerate Charoen Pokphand Group (CP Group) in addition to the above-mentioned fund. The CP Group was not mentioned at all during today’s statement.

In a statement released at the time, CEO and Chairman Arthid Nanthawithaya said, “It is critical to join this new arena of competition as fast as possible in order to survive in the next 3-5 years.” A fintech venture arm of the bank, SCB 10X, already exists, and it has made investments in companies such as Ripple, custody technology provider Fireblocks, investment bank Sygnum, and centralised cryptocurrency lender BlockFi. As of today, it was revealed that the company has also taken part in a fundraising round for the NFT-based metaverse game The SandBox.