At a glance

  • Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed a criminal complaint against BG Limited, the operator of Bitget, alleging it ran a digital-asset exchange for Thai users without a licence from 2022 to 2025, according to the regulator’s statement dated 5 Nov.
  • The SEC has asked the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society (MDES) to block Bitget’s website, other Bitget domains and its app, and says the public will be unable to reach the platform from 5 Dec 2026.

The regulator told investors who use Bitget to “consider taking action regarding their assets held on the platform” before the block date. This is a service note as much as an enforcement story: once the block applies, Thai users may lose easy access to the site and app.

What the SEC alleges

The SEC says Bitget offered a trading system for digital assets as a regular business and charged fees, which makes it a digital-asset exchange under Thailand’s 2018 Emergency Decree on Digital Asset Businesses, the main crypto licensing law. Operating one without a licence is an offence under the decree, the regulator says.

Its evidence, according to the statement, includes a Thai-language website that could show prices in baht, and promotion in Thai through accounts such as “Bitget Thailand” on X, “BGB Thai Holder” on Telegram and “bitgetthailand” on TikTok.

The complaint also names one individual whom the SEC accuses of helping to promote Bitget through a Facebook page and a YouTube channel. These are allegations; the complaint now goes to the police Economic Crime Suppression Division (ECD), then to prosecutors, and a court would decide any criminal liability, the SEC said.

The block rests on a 2025 royal decree on technology-related crime that lets the ministry order access to unlicensed trading platforms cut off.

Bitget’s response and the pending deal

A Bitget spokesperson told Cointelegraph that the exchange was studying the SEC’s notice and weighing how to engage with the regulator, that user assets remain safe, and that it would give guidance on any change to access through its official channels.

The move lands while Bitget’s plan to buy GMO’s licensed Thai exchange, GMO-Z.com Cryptonomics (Thailand), is pending. When Bitget announced the deal on 20 Oct, completion needed Thai regulatory approval for the change of control. Neither the SEC statement nor Bitget’s response says whether the complaint affects that approval, a question CoinDesk also raised.

Why it matters: Thailand is pairing a locally licensed market, including Thailand’s crypto ETF rulebook, with blocks on offshore platforms that court Thai users. Users of unlicensed platforms are not protected under Thai law, the SEC warned.

What we don’t know

The SEC has not said how many Thai users Bitget has, or how much in assets. It has not said whether withdrawals will remain possible after 5 Dec through other routes.

The licensed-operator list can be checked on the SEC’s website and its SEC Check First app, the regulator said. For what a regulated custodian is responsible for, see what a crypto custodian does.

This article is for information only and is not investment advice.