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Thailand’s Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) has come out to say that Zipmex (Thailand) might have violated trading rules and that the investigation into the dealings of this digital asset exchange platform would not be hindered by the high-profile shareholders and advisors.
“The SEC noted that Zipmex might have committed three offenses,” SEC secretary-general Ruenvadee Suwanmongkol told a group of Zipmex’s investors who went to file a complaint against the Singaporean-based digital asset exchange platform at the regulator’s office.
The complaint came after Zipmex, one of Thailand’s leading digital asset exchange, suspended all of their Baht and cryptocurrency withdrawals from its digital wallet called “Z Wallet” on July 20, citing “market fluctuations.”
Ruenvadee said that Zipmex Thailand might have violated trading rules in the country when they suspended the withdrawals on July 20 because the reasons that were given to the SEC were inadequate and the company has a 24 hours a day and 7 days a week trading license.
She said the company might have also conducted an unpermitted trading activity with the Zipup+ product which is related to the transfer of assets in Thailand to the parent company in Singapore, which were used to invest in Babel Finance and Celsius.
Zipmex Thailand’s CEO Akalarp Yimwilai said on the company’s Facebook page that the suspension was related to problems with its ZipUp+ product while Zipmex Global in Singapore, and their trading partners including crypto lenders Babel Finance and Celsius, were experiencing liquidity problems.
Babel Finance halted withdrawals in June and Celsius filed for bankruptcy on July 13. ZipUp+ is an account that offers a high return of up to 10% for investors that deposit their digital assets such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) with the account.
On July 25, Zipmex’s investors filed a police complaint against the platform and on July 26, the SEC ordered the platform to resume all activities.
However, affected investors said some transactions are still being blocked.
When asked whether the high profile names in the shareholder and advisors would have any impact on the case, SEC’s Ruenvadee said “there will be no effect as the SEC is operating under the Emergency Decree on Digital Asset Businesses and we are working without concerns of pressure.”
SEC’s Ruenvadee also said last Friday that Zipmex Global had on July 22 filed for a moratorium application in Singapore and the SEC already demanded the platform to provide clarification on the debt relief filing to investors in Thailand.
The court in Singapore will rule on the application on August 15.
Zipmex Thailand said on Saturday that the group will file an affidavit for the moratorium application today, related parties including debtors will be able to file their affidavit on August 5 and the group will be able to file a response affidavit on August 10.
Zipmex Thailand said the moratorium application does not equate to a bankruptcy filing and the move was meant to facilitate the group’s efforts to restructure their debts.
Zipmex Thailand’s CEO Akalarp said on Monday that the company will compensate for the assets that were invested in Celcius but the assets that were invested with Babel are still there and Babel is not bankrupt.
However, the investment situation with Babel has yet to improve and Zipmex Thailand already informed the SEC about this, and they are working to fix these problems.
“Right now, the services within the Z-Wallet will gradually come back and credits that were invested with Celcius will be given back first, starting from ADA, SOL, XRP, BTC and ETH and this will be done within 2 weeks,” Akalarp said.
He also said that the moratorium application of Zipmex Global was not a bankruptcy filing and the application will not halt the company’s operation and the ruling in Singapore will not affect their operation in Thailand.