Seychelles-based digital exchange Huobi has revealed that it will permanently close its subsidiary in Thailand from July 1 and the exchange has told clients to withdraw their digital assets from the platform before the deadline.
The shutdown came due to the Thai Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) decision to revoke the exchange’s license last September.
A notice on the exchange’s website told the public this: “Due to the SEC’s decision, Huobi Thailand is no longer an authorized digital asset exchange in Thailand, and we will permanently close the platform on July 1, 2022.”
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Huobi
The exchange said it has been trying to reach clients to withdraw their funds since September, and clients will still be able to contact the subsidiary company located in Thailand for withdrawals after the deadline date. the permanent.
Huobi’s stay in Thailand has been short-lived, as it was first licensed in 2019 and started operating in 2020 after an investigation earlier in 2021 that Thailand’s Securities Regulatory Authority said it found “irreparable” regulatory irregularities in the exchange’s operations.
The findings at the time led Thailand’s Ministry of Finance to revoke the exchange’s license just this week, and the Ministry of Finance cited Huobi’s failure to meet SEC standards for consumer protection as a justification for its action.
Thailand is not the first jurisdiction where the exchange has faced regulatory problems, it has been closed in the US since 2019 and forced to exit China in 2021 after the government crackdown on all digital asset companies .
While speaking to CNBC, Huobi Global co-founder Du Jun said that shutting down its operations in mainland China cost the exchange about 30% of its profits last year and also revealed that Huobi plans to return to the US market, but as an asset manager.
Amid the troubles, Huobi is still able to maintain its position as one of the largest crypto exchanges globally. The exchange announced last week that it will now trade BSV in Japan.
Meanwhile, it wasn’t the only exchange that faced regulatory problems.
For most of 2021, the world’s largest exchange by volume, Binance faced multiple regulatory hurdles Binance’s woes have continued this year as the US subsidiary is currently facing a class action lawsuit in connection with the Terra crash.
