On Friday, Thailand’s financial watchdog filed a criminal complaint against cryptocurrency exchange Binance for operating a digital asset business without a licence, the latest in a series of regulatory crackdowns on the exchange.
Binance had been running a digital asset company “in the category of a digital asset exchange” without a licence, according to Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Only licenced organisations can provide services linked to digital asset trading in Thailand, according to the SEC. The Commission had written to Binance in April, warning it about its operations, but had gotten no answer, prompting it to file a criminal complaint with Thai authorities, it added.
A Binance spokesman declined to comment on the Thai complaint, but said the company works together with regulators. The spokesman added that Binance takes its compliance commitments seriously.
The UK’s financial watchdog forbade the world’s largest exchange from conducting regulated activities in the country last week.
Last week, Japan’s authority said Binance was operating illegally in the country. Germany government warned in April it could penalise the exchange for offering tokens tied to equities.
Binance was under investigation by the US Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service, according to Bloomberg in May.
According to the SEC, the complaint filed in Thailand represents the start of a criminal procedure. A police investigation possibly leading to a recommendation to a public attorney with prosecutorial jurisdiction may be on the cards. The offence involves a sentence of two to five years in prison, a fine of 200,000-500,000 baht (£4,504-11,260). And a daily fee of up to 10,000 baht for each day the violation persists.
According to data, trading volumes on the exchange were £479 billion in June, up more than tenfold from July 2020. In May, daily volumes reached £66.56 billion on a single day.