Coin Asset, a Thai cryptocurrency exchange is “seeking a way to remain open” after being denied a license by the Thai Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Bangkok Post reports:
“Coin Asset chief executive Sivanus Yamdee said the company will meet the SEC on Friday to discuss continuing its digital asset exchange operations.”
The company was reportedly denied a license to operate after the SEC determined that 3-out-of-4 individuals responsible for maintaining systems at the exchange, including the Chief Financial Officer (CFO), had resigned, and in the case of the CFO, had not been replaced in a timely manner.
The SEC also reportedly found problems with Coin Asset’s Know-Your-Customer (KYC) system, an important means of ensuring that trade manipulation is not occurring on an exchange.
Three other Thai crypto exchanges, Bitcoin Co, Bitkub Online Co, and Satang Corporation Co were successfully licensed as “authorized digital asset exchanges,” and Coins TH Co is now a licensed broker-dealer of cryptocurrencies.
News of Coin Asset’s failed bid for a license reportedly caused a massive sell of two Thai-issued altcoins, JFin and DEV coin.
Following the news, the price of JFin plunged from 6.60 baht (~$0.21 USD) to 0.84 (~$0.03 USD) satang “as of press time on Tuesday.”
DEV coin went from 1.49 baht (~$0.05 USD) to 0.39 satang (~$0.01 USD).
The exchange appears to be the only place those two tokens were trading because if no license is shortly obtained by Coin Asset, hot wallets associated with the two coins will reportedly close.
Under current conditions, the exchange has until January 21st, 2019 to cease operating.
The SEC says that processing time for a new license application is a minimum of 4 months, but CEO Sivanus says Coin Asset doesn’t have that kind of time:
“We are unable to endure such a long processing time. The business cycle is on the rise and there are costs for daily business conduct. It is not easy to maintain customer loyalty.”
Coin Asset reportedly serves 10 000 clients, 70% of whom are Thai and processes 60 million baht (~$1.9 million USD) crypto trades per day.