Report: Cryptocurrency Exchange Houbi Forced out of Thailand, has license revoked by Thai SEC

By: Dickson Arinze

Report: Cryptocurrency Exchange Houbi Forced out of Thailand, has license revoked by Thai SEC

June 17, 2022 12:15 AM

Huobi Thailand arm has failed to fix system issues after several warnings given by the Thai Securityies and Exchange commission (SEC).

 

Huobi’s Thailand will shut its operation on July 1, just after it was announced that its operating license has been revoked by the Thai Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC).

 

The Huobi’s Thailand license was revoked in May after it passed on the opportunity to adhere with regulations in the country. The orders to permanently shut the door came nearly eight months after the financial regulators suspended the exchange’s services in September 2021.

 

However, Huobi Thailand is based on Huobi Cloud. where Huobi Cloud provides only technical product support and brand authorization, The Houbi Thailand project was built by Huobi Cloud and its local Thai partner G.L.T.

 

Houbi Cloud will no longer be providing support for this project in the future after the expiration of the current brand authorization and technical service contract.

 

“Due to orders from the SEC, Huobi Thailand will no longer an authorized digital asset exchange in Thailand. We will be shutting down the platform permanently on July 1, 2022.” the exchange stated.

 

While Houbi Thailand confirmed it has tried to fix the regulatory issues but would have to shut down operations due to orders from the Thai SEC.

 

According to an official statement from the Thai SEC, it revealed that the crypto exchange was first warned about its inadequate system measures in March 2021. Also sending various warning and granting multiple extensions for the exchange to fix its trading system, customer asset retention system. and information technology systems, but despite multiple extensions and promises, the crypto exchange failed to comply with SEC.

 

Nonetheless, after a thorough review of the series of violations and failure to fix the issues was carried out, the regulators decided to finally revoke the digital asset business license permanently on May 17, 2022.

 

Houbi Thailand has put out a notice on its official website, reminding users to withdraw their funds while also leaving a refund address to contact in case users fail to withdraw their funds before the permanent closure on July 1.

 

Houbi Thailand is not the first crypto exchange to have been faced with regulatory issues relating to guidelines from the Thai SEC. Despite Thailand being regarded as one of the progressive crypto nations in Asia, exchanges such has Binance has been caught up in regulatory dispute with the SEC in the past.

 

On March. 2022, the Thai SEC banned crypto and digital assets as a method of payment and also announced that crypto platforms must disclose their system failures to ensure user protection in the country.