Thailand's Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed a criminal complaint against BG Limited, the operator of cryptocurrency exchange Bitget, alleging the company ran an unlicensed digital-asset exchange serving Thai users from 2022 to 2025, and has asked the government to block access to the platform beginning Dec. 5.

The complaint, lodged Thursday with the Economic Crime Suppression Division (ECD), a unit of the Royal Thai Police that investigates economic offenses, also names Mr. Kritsana Kritsananuwat as an alleged supporter who promoted Bitget through Facebook and YouTube channels, the SEC said in statement No. 241/2026.

Grounds for the complaint

From 2022 through 2025, the regulator found, Bitget offered a trading system in the ordinary course of business, charged fees, ran a Thai-language website capable of displaying values in baht, and solicited Thai users on social channels including "Bitget Thailand" on X, "BGB Thai Holder" on Telegram and "bitgetthailand" on TikTok — the kind of Thai-language services and locally directed marketing regulators treat as evidence an exchange is doing business with users inside the country.

The SEC said that conduct amounts to operating a digital-asset exchange under Section 3 of the Emergency Decree on Digital Asset Businesses B.E. 2561 (2018) without a license — a violation of Section 26 punishable under Section 66. The case now moves to an inquiry official, the stage at which evidence is compiled before a charging decision, and then to prosecutors and the courts.

Access block from Dec. 5

Separately, the SEC submitted Bitget's website, other domains and its app to the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society under a 2025 royal decree that authorizes access blocks on unlicensed trading platforms. From Dec. 5, the public "will be unable to access the platform," the statement said, and investors still holding assets there were told to consider acting before the cutoff. A block of this kind restricts reach to the site and app from within Thailand; it does not by itself secure or recover assets held on the platform.

A licensed path next to a criminal case

The enforcement push lands weeks after Bitget announced a planned acquisition of GMO-Z.com Cryptonomics (Thailand), a Bangkok digital-asset exchange and brokerage that already holds Thai licenses, through its interest in BTGT Management (Thailand) Ltd.

Under that deal, GMO Internet and its Thai holding company would transfer their entire stakes in GMO-Z — about 49% and 50.94%, respectively — to BTGT or a designee at completion, a Sept. 24 GMO Internet filing showed. Bitget said completion remains subject to regulatory approval and, after a change-of-control nod — the regulatory sign-off required when ownership of a licensed operator changes hands — it intends to introduce its trading platform to Thai users under local rules.

"Thailand is an important part of Southeast Asia's digital asset landscape, and this acquisition gives us a great opportunity to establish local operations," Bitget CEO Gracy Chen said in the Oct. 20 release.

The timetable has already slipped. GMO Internet Group pushed the effective date of the share transfer from Oct. 31 to Nov. 30, citing careful work on Thai regulatory applications and closing procedures — a revised date that sits five days before the planned Bitget access block.

CoinDesk reported that Bitget's own terms of use, updated in October, already list Thailand among jurisdictions where its services are prohibited, and that the SEC has not said whether the criminal complaint will weigh on the GMO-Z change of control.

What the block settles — and what it does not

Thailand has used the same access-blocking tool before. In mid-2025, the SEC referred Bybit, OKX and three other unlicensed platforms for a June 28 cutoff, telling users to move assets first. The Bitget action follows that template — and adds a criminal complaint against the exchange operator and a named promoter.

Licensed venues still sit at the center of Bangkok's policy mix. Thailand has approved a multi-year capital-gains tax break that applies only to trades on SEC-regulated platforms, and has been expanding regulated crypto products in derivatives and capital markets. Unlicensed platforms get the opposite treatment: investor alerts, access blocks and, now for Bitget, a police referral.

What is not yet clear is whether a criminal case against BG Limited for the 2022–2025 period bars, slows or leaves untouched BTGT's bid to take over a licensed local operator. The SEC statement does not mention GMO-Z, and Bitget has not publicly answered the complaint in a statement posted with the acquisition release.

For Thai users still on Bitget, the practical clock is Dec. 5. For Bitget, the test is whether Nov. 30 closes a regulated door into Thailand — or whether the complaint filed Thursday makes that licensed path the next question the ECD and the SEC have to answer.

This article first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.