Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has revoked two operating licenses for cryptocurrency exchange Zipmex after months of regulatory scrutiny. In a June 11 announcement, the SEC declared that Zipmex could no longer operate as a digital asset exchange and broker for cryptocurrencies in Thailand, effective May 28.
The SEC initially ordered Zipmex in February to suspend its services to Thai users to address its financial and operational deficiencies. Despite this, Thailand’s Finance Minister determined that the exchange remained “in contravention” of these orders.
The SEC has mandated Zipmex to return assets to its clients or proceed according to their requests. For clients who do not claim their assets, Zipmex must deposit the unclaimed assets in a trusted and secure system and report its progress to the SEC promptly.
Following the 2022 crypto market downturn, Zipmex came under heavy scrutiny from the SEC. The exchange faced a probe over an acquisition by V Ventures and concerns about operating without proper regulatory approval. Zipmex suspended trading in November 2023, citing compliance with regulations.
First licensed by the Thai SEC in 2020, the Singapore-based exchange filed for debt relief two years later, reportedly owing customers $97 million. As of November 2023, Zipmex was willing to offer creditors 3.35 cents per dollar for initial claims as part of its restructuring efforts.
The company wishes to inform you that all correspondences sent and received from the Singapore court throughout the moratorium & restructuring process is available through these 2 channels:
– Zipmex website announcements page (https://t.co/35GCh4RcIZ)
– Email from Korda Mentha— ZIPMEX (@zipmex) April 20, 2023
zkSync to Airdrop 3.6 Billion ZK Tokens
In other cryptocurrency news, Ethereum scaling solution zkSync announced an airdrop of 3.6 billion ZK tokens to users next week. The airdrop follows a snapshot taken in March, with over 695,000 users set to receive 17.5% of ZK’s total supply of 21 billion tokens. Despite the generous allocation, the crypto community has raised concerns about the fairness of the distribution list.
The zkSync project has allocated two-thirds of its token supply to the community, with 33.3% reserved for team members and investors over a four-year lock period. This airdrop comes a year after users first anticipated a governance token for the zero-knowledge (ZK) layer-2 network.
