Thailand's Bitkub plans a crypto expansion in Southeast Asia

Bitkub, Thailand's largest trading company for cryptocurrencies, plans to expand its activities this year to other Southeast Asian countries, said founder and managing director Topp Jirayut Srupsrisopa.

Topp said that Bitkub does not start a “bloodshed war” with dominant trading platforms in the region like Indodax, one of the largest Bitcoin and crypto exchanges in Indonesia, but is targeting countries without strong incumbent.

"We plan to go to a country without clear winners because we don't want to go into a war with large established players," said Topp in an interview with the Financial Times.

"We believe that this type of business has a network effect and scale effects, so we want to be the first to bring a product onto the market," he said.

His comments come in the middle of the growing trade volume for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies on the Bitkub platform in Thailand, the second largest economy in the region, where the supervisory authorities are considering new taxes for the sector.

he said, Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, the Philippines and Malaysia were among the countries without "clear winners" in the trade in cryptocurrencies.

"We are currently in the market research phase," he said.

Topp said that Bitkub had not yet started any formal due diligence for its expansion that would finance it from existing profits. The group said their net profit in 2021 reached 5 billion Baht ($ 152 million).

Topp is a former investment banker and management consultant who founded his first cryptocurrency company in a guest room in a clothing store in Bangkok in a guest room in a guest room in a guest room.

The Siam Commercial Bank, Thailand's oldest lender, whose shareholders include Thai King Maha Vajiralongkorn, acquired a 51 percent participation in Bitkub for $ 537 million in November, which gives the company a "unicorn" assessment of more than $ 1 billion.

The competition for cryptocurrency customers has intensified in Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries.

This week the trading platform Binance and Gulf Energy Development, which are controlled by the Thai billionaire Sarath Ratanavadi, announced that they are carrying out a common study to set up a stock exchange for digital assets.

Topp refused to comment on the proposed connection, "until.. It is essential and becomes a fact". He added that Bitkub was ready to withstand the competition, which was "good" for the industry.

"It creates progress, it creates good results for customers," he said.

The cryptoandel heated by young Thai countries grew quickly during the pandemic, which weakened the country that depends on tourism. The Thai government has given the idea of ​​raising a source tax of 15 percent on profitable cryptocurrency transactions, but faces a considerable resistance of the aspiring industry.

"There seems to be a great hurry to enforce this tax law, although there are so many uncertainties about the effects that you calculate how to create tax reports for individuals and how the stock exchanges are charged," said Pete Peeradej Tanruangporn, Managing Director of Upbit, a crypto exchange, and chairman of the Thai Digital Asset Operators Trade Association.

Topp refused to comment on the proposed tax and said that this was "speculation" because politics had not been officially announced.

Twitter: @johnReedwrites