Zipmex under investigation by Thailand SEC after the crypto exchange suspended withdrawals for investors
Nickie Louise
Posted On July 25, 2022
Last week, Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange Zipmex temporarily suspended withdrawals for thousands of its customers. The startup immediately resume withdrawals resumed on the same evening in Thailand and later on in other countries, except for transfers from one investment product.
But it now appears the crypto exchange is in trouble with authorities after today’s report that Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was working with law enforcement to look into potential losses among the public.
The Thailand SEC said in a statement it was asking impacted Zipmex users to submit information via an online forum on how they had been affected by the problems at the platform. A Zipmex spokesperson told Reuters that the company is fully complying with SEC requests and has been actively speaking to government agencies.
Zipmex is the latest in a series of companies impacted by the recent fallout in the crypto industry due to exposure to defaults from now-bankrupt Three Arrows Capital. Others include Celsius Network, Voyager Digital, Babel Finance, and others.
The Southeast Asia-focused crypto exchange, which operates in Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, and Australia, disclosed last week it had exposure worth $53 million in crypto lenders, Babel Finance and Celsius.
Zipmex said it extended a loan amount of $48 million to Babel, with an additional $5 million to Celsius, which recently for bankruptcy. But anonymous sources put the loan amount to be at $100 million from a high-yielding program known as ZipUp to Babel. A Babel representative denied the claim. Zipmex said it plans to write off the $5 million loan to Celsius and is in discussion with Babel to evaluate its options to resolve the issue.
According to the Thailand SEC, Zipmex currently holds a digital asset exchange and a digital asset broker license. Dr. Akalarp Yimwilai, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Zipmex (Thailand) also said that Zipmex is a digital trading platform licensed by the Ministry of Finance and regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Meanwhile, Zipmex said in a Facebook post over the weekend that it was exploring a deal with an “interested party.”
