Thai regulator suspects cryptocurrency exchange Bitkub of fictitious trading

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of Thailand has filed a lawsuit with the country's judicial authorities against the country's largest cryptocurrency exchange.

The SEC suspects Bitkub management of fictitious trading in digital assets, in which investors buy and sell the same assets at the same time:

“Authorized agents of Bitkub deliberately sought to manipulate the market to create the appearance of heightened trading interest by placing matching buy and sell orders through a prohibited practice called shell trading, where trades are executed without transferring ownership of the asset.”

Based on the decision of the Civil Court of Thailand, the SEC plans to collect a fine of 24 million baht ($636 267) from the exchange, as well as ban those guilty of the identified offense from leading the cryptocurrency exchange for a period of six months or more.

Earlier, the Thai regulator investigated the incident
with insider trading against Bitkub CTO Samret Wajanasathian, who was fined $230,000.