Bitget: Thailand Files a Licence Complaint, Not a Fraud Case, and Will Block the Exchange on 5 December

On Thursday 5 November 2026, Thailand's Securities and Exchange Commission (the Thai SEC, no relation to the American agency of the same name) said it had taken Bitget to the police. Bitget is a crypto exchange, which works much like a stockbroker: customers hold money with it, buy and sell through it, and pay it a fee on each trade.

The complaint is about a missing licence. The regulator does not allege theft or fraud, and it does not say Bitget lost anyone's money. It says BG Limited, the company behind Bitget, ran an exchange for people in Thailand from 2022 to 2025 without the licence Thai law requires. Doing that is itself a crime in Thailand, which is why the paperwork is called a criminal complaint and why it went to the Economic Crime Suppression Division (ECD) and not to a civil court.

A complaint is not a charge. The regulator's own release, No. 241/2026, sets out the order of events: "an investigation by the inquiry official, prosecution by the public prosecutor, and adjudication by the court of justice." The complaint only opens the first of those. Nobody has been charged and no court has ruled.

One part does not wait for a court. The Thai SEC has told the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society (MDES) to cut off Bitget in Thailand. From 5 December 2026, the release says, "the public will be unable to access the platform." That covers www.bitget.com, other Bitget web addresses and its app.

What the regulator says Bitget did

The Thai SEC's case rests on how the business looked from Thailand. It says Bitget provided a trading system in the ordinary course of business and charged fees for it. It says the platform had a Thai-language website that could show values in Thai baht. It says Bitget sought out customers in Thai on its own website and on social media, and it names three accounts: "Bitget Thailand" on X, "BGB Thai Holder" on Telegram and "bitgetthailand" on TikTok.

Under the Emergency Decree on Digital Asset Businesses of 2018, the regulator says, that counts as running an exchange in Thailand (Section 3). Doing so without a licence breaks Section 26 and is an offence under Section 66. The release quotes no penalty.

The complaint also covers one individual, accused of helping Bitget by publicising it on a Facebook page and a YouTube channel. The regulator says this made Bitget better known and drew more people to it. That is an accusation of assisting, and it has not been tested either.

The release does not say how many Thai customers Bitget had, or how much money they hold there.

What Bitget has said

On the complaint, nothing so far. Cointelegraph and crypto.news both reported that Bitget did not answer their requests for comment. At about 16:35 UTC on 5 November, Bitget's X account, chief executive Gracy Chen's X account and Bitget's announcements page carried nothing about the complaint or the block.

The record does contain Bitget's position on Thailand in general. Its terms of use, updated in October, list Thailand as a country where its services are prohibited, alongside Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, according to Finance Magnates and CoinLaw. Bitget has also said it will offer its platform to Thai users only after a licensed route is in place, and that it will follow Thai rules.

The licensed exchange Bitget wants to buy

That route is a company called GMO-Z.com Cryptonomics (Thailand), a licensed Bangkok exchange and brokerage that runs the Z.com EX platform. Its owner, Japan's GMO Internet, said in March that it would leave the Thai crypto business. On 24 September GMO's board approved selling all 7,349,446 shares to BTGT Management (Thailand), a company set up two days earlier. GMO's filing did not mention Bitget, and the price was withheld at the buyer's request.

Bitget announced its interest in BTGT on 20 October. It has not said how large that interest is. Chen wrote on X that day that "Bitget has acquired a Bangkok-based licensed digital asset exchange and brokerage" and that this gave it "a licensed local foundation to build operations the right way."

Bitget's formal announcement said completion needed regulatory approval, including approval for the change of control, the sign-off a regulator gives before a licensed firm gets a new owner. GMO expected the shares to move on 31 October. No report of a completed sale or an approval could be found by 5 November. The Thai SEC's list of investor warnings, which named Bitget as unlicensed, was updated on 19 October, the day before the announcement, according to CoinLaw and Bitcoin.com.

The release does not mention the deal. It also does not mention the $387.5 million hack of Bitget's own wallets on 24 September, a separate story.

Thailand has done this before

In March 2025 the Thai SEC filed a complaint against Aux Cayes FinTech, the operator of OKX, and nine people accused of promoting it. A change in the law that took effect on 13 April 2025 let MDES block unlicensed platforms directly. On 29 May 2025 the regulator named Bybit, OKX, CoinEx, XT.COM and 1000X, and they were blocked from 28 June 2025.

Those companies answered at the time. Bybit said it took the matter seriously and was "proactively engaging with relevant regulators to seek further clarity." OKX said it was "strongly committed to maintaining the highest standards of regulatory compliance."

The regulator has also acted where a licensed Thai firm was involved. On 20 February 2026 the Thai SEC filed a complaint against Bitazza, a licensed Thai broker, and its overseas platform Bitazza Global, with a block on the overseas platform from 22 March. Bitazza said its Thai business was running normally, customer assets were safe and the two companies were separate. Law firm Tilleke & Gibbins read the case as a sign that offshore platforms "may not rely on local licensed entities" to reach Thai users. Another platform, VCEX, is due to be blocked on 7 November 2026.

What the regulator told Thai users

The release says investors using Bitget should "consider taking action regarding their assets held on the platform before the scheduled access blocking date." It orders nobody to sell, and it does not say what will happen to balances after the block. It says customers of unlicensed operators "will not be protected under the law", and it points to the SEC Check First app for the list of licensed firms.