Bitkub Hid $53M Theft to Stop Run as SEC Charges Directors

Woofun AI reports that Thailand's Securities and Exchange Commission has filed a criminal complaint against Bitkub Online and two former directors, alleging the concealment of a 2021 theft involving customer assets. The regulator asserts that the exchange submitted daily net-capital reports, known as Form DA 1, which failed to reflect the impact of the incident.

The core of the dispute centers on a May 2021 cyberattack that resulted in the withdrawal of customer assets across 16 cryptocurrencies, totaling approximately 1.7 billion baht, or roughly $53 million. Per Woofun AI, the SEC alleges that Bitkub’s Form DA 1 filings from May 10 through Oct. 30, 2021, showed no material change in its asset balance despite the theft, conduct the regulator characterized as false reporting.

Subsequent information indicates that Bitkub began procuring replacement digital assets on Oct. 31, 2021, though the regulator did not specify when this process concluded. Bitkub defends its actions by stating that its co-founders absorbed the loss by buying the same currencies in the same quantities, claiming that neither the company nor its customers suffered asset losses from the incident.

Asset replacement and regulatory reporting remain separate questions in the complaint. Bitkub argues that the nondisclosure was intended to avert a bank run, whereas the SEC alleges that the daily reports failed to show a material change in the exchange's assets before replacement began.