Thailand SEC Files Criminal Complaint Against Bitget, Sets Dec. 5 Block

Thailand's Securities and Exchange Commission filed a criminal complaint Thursday against BG Limited, the operator of crypto exchange Bitget, alleging it ran an unlicensed digital-asset business for Thai users from 2022 to 2025. The regulator also asked the government to block the platform from Dec. 5.

The complaint, lodged with the Economic Crime Suppression Division and published in SEC statement No. 241/2026, names Mr. Kritsana Kritsananuwat as an alleged supporter who promoted Bitget through Facebook and YouTube channels. The case now moves to an inquiry official, then to prosecutors and the courts.

According to the SEC's findings, Bitget did not merely serve stray Thai traffic. The exchange offered a trading system in the ordinary course of business, charged fees, and ran a Thai-language website capable of displaying values in baht. It also solicited local users through dedicated social channels: "Bitget Thailand" on X, "BGB Thai Holder" on Telegram, and "bitgetthailand" on TikTok.

What law does the SEC say Bitget broke?

The conduct amounts to operating a digital-asset exchange under Section 3 of the Emergency Decree on Digital Asset Businesses B.E. 2561 (2018) without a license, the SEC said. That violates Section 26 and is punishable under Section 66.

Separately, the regulator submitted Bitget's website, other domains and its app to the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society under a 2025 royal decree that authorizes access blocks on unlicensed trading platforms. From Dec. 5, the public "will be unable to access the platform," the statement said, and investors still holding assets there were told to consider acting before the cutoff.

How does this collide with Bitget's local acquisition?

The enforcement push lands weeks after Bitget announced a planned acquisition of GMO-Z.com Cryptonomics (Thailand), a Bangkok digital-asset exchange and brokerage that already holds Thai licenses, through its interest in BTGT Management (Thailand) Ltd.

Under that deal, GMO Internet and its Thai holding company would transfer their entire stake in GMO-Z — about 49% and 50.94%, respectively — to BTGT or a designee at completion, according to a Sept. 24 GMO Internet filing. Bitget said completion remains subject to regulatory approval and that, after a change-of-control nod, it intends to introduce its trading platform to Thai users under local rules.

"Thailand is an important part of Southeast Asia's digital asset landscape, and this acquisition gives us a great opportunity to establish local operations," Bitget CEO Gracy Chen said in the Oct. 20 release.

The timetable has already slipped. GMO Internet Group pushed the effective date of the share transfer from Oct. 31 to Nov. 30, citing careful work on Thai regulatory applications and closing procedures. That revised date sits five days before the planned Bitget access block.

CoinDesk reported that Bitget's own terms of use, updated in October, already list Thailand among jurisdictions where its services are prohibited, and that the SEC has not said whether the criminal complaint will weigh on the GMO-Z change of control.

What does the block settle — and what does it leave open?

Thailand has used this tool before. In mid-2025 the SEC referred Bybit, OKX and three other unlicensed platforms for a June 28 cutoff, telling users to move assets first. The Bitget action follows that template, then goes further by adding a criminal complaint against the exchange operator and a named promoter.

Licensed venues remain the center of Bangkok's policy mix. Thailand has approved a multi-year capital-gains tax break only for trades on SEC-regulated platforms and continues expanding regulated crypto products in derivatives and capital markets, while unlicensed platforms face investor alerts, blocks and, in Bitget's case, a police referral.

The open question is whether a criminal case against BG Limited covering 2022–2025 bars, slows or leaves untouched BTGT's bid to take over a licensed local operator. The SEC statement does not mention GMO-Z, and Bitget has not publicly answered the complaint alongside its acquisition release.

For Thai users still on Bitget, the practical clock runs out Dec. 5. For Bitget, the test is whether the Nov. 30 share transfer closes a regulated door into Thailand — or whether the complaint makes that licensed path the next question the ECD and the SEC must answer.