Thai SEC Files Criminal Complaint, Moves to Block Bitget on 5 December

Thailand's Securities and Exchange Commission filed a criminal complaint on Thursday against BG Limited, the company that operates the Bitget exchange, and told the ministry that controls internet access to cut the platform off on 5 December. The regulator alleges BG Limited ran a digital asset exchange for Thai customers without a licence between 2022 and 2025, took trading fees and advertised the service in Thai. The complaint went to the Economic Crime Suppression Division for investigation. Nothing is settled by that filing. Prosecutors decide whether charges follow, and a court decides criminal liability.

Who actually turns the switch

The notice covers Bitget's website, its associated domains and its mobile application. Thailand's Ministry of Digital Economy and Society holds the power to restrict access to unlicensed trading venues, and the commission has passed it the case. Cointelegraph, writing on Thursday morning, says the SEC notified the ministry. crypto.news, an hour later, says it asked. Neither reports an order already issued, and no ministry official appears in any of the three accounts read here. The authority sits in a 2025 decree, which crypto.news names as the Royal Decree on Measures for Preventing and Suppressing Technology-Related Crimes. Cointelegraph describes the same instrument and does not name it, so the title stands on one account.

The sections, and who cites them

Only one account read puts numbers on the law. crypto.news reports that the conduct met the definition of running a digital asset exchange under Section 3 of the Emergency Decree on Digital Asset Businesses, the 2018 law covering the sector, that BG Limited breached Section 26 by serving customers without a licence, and that Section 66 carries the offence. CoinGape names the same decree with no sections. Cointelegraph names no law at all. Two of the three accounts also say the complaint names an individual, Kritsana Kritsananuwat, over promotion of the platform; crypto.news alone ties that to a Facebook page and a YouTube channel, both called Srisiam, and to Thai-language accounts on X, Telegram and TikTok. The same commission has spent the year writing rules as well as enforcing them, including a proposal to open overseas crypto derivatives to retail investors.

A licensed route that has not closed

Bitget had been working on the lawful way in. In October it said it would buy GMO-Z.com Cryptonomics (Thailand), which runs the locally licensed Z.com EX venue, through a vehicle called BTGT Management (Thailand). crypto.news puts the stake at 99.94%, held between GMO Internet and its Thai subsidiary, and dates the planned share transfer to 31 October. The purchase needs regulatory approval and has not closed. No launch date for licensed Thai services has been announced. The same account reports that Bitget's October user agreement already listed Thailand among its restricted jurisdictions, which is the opposite posture to the conduct the SEC describes for 2022 to 2025.

What customers were told, in four versions

The instruction to users reads differently in every account. Cointelegraph says the regulator advised them to take action on assets held on the platform before the deadline. CoinGape's own summary says close out positions while its body text says manage any positions. crypto.news says customers were advised to review their accounts, and adds that the announcement sets out no automatic liquidation and does not require anyone to sell. The four readings do not reconcile. The deadline is the same in all of them, and the SEC points investors to its own licence register.

Bitget has said nothing. Two outlets report it did not reply to them, and the third says no public statement addressing the Thai action has appeared. One account says Thailand blocked five unlicensed exchanges in June 2025 under the same framework, Bybit and OKX among them, and that date appears nowhere else here; Bybit has since announced a Dubai spot licence. No fines, penalties or Thai user numbers are in the record. Whether the GMO approval lands before 5 December is the next thing to settle. If it does, a blocked brand and a licensed venue would sit under the same owner on the same day.