Thailand SEC Accuses Bitkub of Hiding $50M Hack Losses

Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission has filed a criminal complaint accusing crypto exchange Bitkub Online Co. Ltd. and two former directors of submitting false daily net capital reports to hide losses from a May 2021 cyberattack.

The complaint, lodged with the Economic Crime Suppression Division, names former directors Sakolkorn Sakavee and Thaweesap Rawan. The SEC alleges the breach, which affected 16 types of digital assets, removed roughly $50 million (about 1.7 billion baht) from the exchange’s holdings on May 10, 2021.

Regulators say Bitkub failed to reflect the theft in its Form DA 1 filings from May 10 to Oct. 30, 2021. The SEC alleges the company made false entries so daily net capital statements did not show the missing assets, in breach of Thailand’s Emergency Decree on Digital Asset Businesses B.E. 2561 (2018). Investigators note replacement assets were procured by late October 2021 but say the interim reports contained inaccurate information that could have misled regulators and customers.

Bitkub issued a statement defending the decision not to disclose the incident publicly at the time. The exchange reported the theft to law enforcement on May 10, 2021, and its co-founders purchased replacement assets in the same amounts and currencies, the company stated, so customer balances remained intact. The company added it has pursued legal remedies against the perpetrators and upgraded security, operations and governance under independent board oversight.

The SEC’s criminal complaint transfers the matter to the ECD for further investigation. Prosecutors will review evidence and decide whether to file formal indictments against the exchange and the two former directors. If charges proceed, executives may face criminal penalties under the emergency decree and related laws governing digital asset businesses.

The case follows an earlier operational outage at Bitkub that prompted the SEC to request a temporary suspension of trading a few months before the May 2021 attack. Bitkub is one of Thailand’s largest crypto exchanges and has explored a Hong Kong initial public offering in late 2025. The ECD investigation and any prosecutorial decisions could affect the exchange’s operations and expansion plans.