- Banks in Thailand are betting heavily on crypto.
- KBANK is the latest bank to invest in a crypto-focused firm.
- The bank acquired a controlling stake at a leading crypto exchange.
Thailand’s second-largest bank in terms of assets, deposits, and loans has gone full throttle into the nascent digital assets industry, with the latest reports indicating that the bank has solidified its crypto foothold with a major acquisition.
On October 30, Kasikorn Bank of Thailand (KBANK) announced the acquisition of a dominating stake in the parent company of Satang crypto exchange, an established digital assets platform operational in Thailand since 2017.
KBANK Acquires a Controlling Stake in Satang
According to reports by local media outlets, KBANK revealed to the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) that its board of directors had approved the establishment of “Unita Capital Company Limited” (Unita Capital) as a subsidiary investment vehicle in the digital assets industry.
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With KBANK holding a 100% stake in the subsidiary through a 3.705 billion Thai baht ($102.8 million) deal, Unita Capital has a mandate to set up investments in digital asset businesses, among them a 97% stake in Satang Corporation, the parent company of Satang crypto exchange.
Once the deal is finalized, Satang will rebrand to Orbix and operate alongside three other additional subsidiaries, namely, Orbix Technology (blockchain technology infrastructure developer), Orbix Custodian, and Orbix Invest (a digital asset fund manager).
As reported, both Orbix Custodian and Orbix Invest are obtaining operational licenses in their respective business domains.
While this is a great milestone in KBANK’s efforts to branch out into crypto, the bank is not the first traditional finance player to join the party. In fact, it is comparatively late.
Thai Banks Doubling Down on Crypto
As traditional finance institutions are shying away from crypto in other parts of the world, leading banks in Thailand are doing the opposite.
In 2021, KBANK’s competitor, Siam Commercial Bank (SCB), ventured into crypto with its digital asset and blockchain subsidiary SCB 10X before setting up a $600 million joint venture fund, the Global Disruptive Technology Venture Capital Fund, a few months later.
Like KBANK, SCB also made a $537 million deal to acquire a controlling stake in Thailand’s largest crypto exchange but pulled out later after the deal drove the bank into some run-ins with the local regulator.
Read how Binance collaborated with Thai authorities to expose a $277M crypto scam:
Decoding Thailand’s $277M ‘Pig Butchering’ Crypto Scam
In another development, Thai authorities made multiple arrests in a multi-million crypto scam. Read more:
Thailand Authorities Arrest 5 for $76 Million Crypto Scam
