Thailand's oldest banking company plans to become the majority shareholder of 1 the largest crypto exchanges in the country later on a $536.7-one thousand thousand buy.

Co-ordinate to a Tuesday announcement, Siam Commercial Bank's SCB 10 Group is expected to buy a 51% pale in Thailand-based crypto commutation Bitkub for 17.85 billion baht (roughly $536.7 one thousand thousand) by the second quarter of 2022. The exchange said the deal is subject area to approval from the Thai Securities and Substitution Commission, or SEC, and the state'due south cardinal bank.

Arthit Nanthawittaya, CEO of Siam Commercial Banking concern, said the acquisition was based on the growth of businesses in the digital asset space over the last 2 years and the expected value in the long term. The company hinted at aiming to strengthen and grow the digital asset ecosystem in Thailand.

"Bitkub has reached the point where nosotros have become an important structure in Thailand's future economy," said Jirayut Srupsrisopa, founder and CEO of Bitkub. "Bitkub is no longer merely a startup. It is condign necessary infrastructure for the fiscal industry 3.0 in Thailand."

Bitkub is one of the few crypto exchanges in Thailand operating with the approval of the country's SEC. After releasing revised crypto regulations in Nov 2022, the financial regulator ordered the exchange to suspend services and fix bug regarding outages during periods of high need. According to data from CoinMarketCap, the exchange had more than $274 one thousand thousand in trading book in the last 24 hours.

Related: Upbit launches in Thailand merely days after regulators suspended Bitkub

Regulators in Thailand have issued a number of guidelines for individual crypto traders and businesses. In June, SEC officials issued a notice that Thai exchanges were banned from handling meme-based tokens, fan-based tokens, nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and exchange-issued tokens. The regulatory body also proposed a set of guidelines in August related to the custody of investors' cryptocurrency holdings held by digital asset business operators.

Update eleven/3/2021: Bitkub achieved unicorn condition with a valuation of more than $1 billion after its KUB token price rose past more than than 146% in the concluding 36 hours to reach a price of $2.44.