Citi to launch bitcoin custody service for institutional investors this year

The SEC has filed charges against Assure Technology Co., Ltd. and five related individuals with the Economic Crime Suppression Division, alleging they operated the digital asset trading platform Vcex.io without a licence. The SEC has also notified the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society to block access to the platform starting 7 November 2026. The SEC's investigation found that between 24 December 2021 and 2 September 2022, Assure Technology Co., Ltd., Siwanat Yamdee and Pimchaya Wattanakulyothin jointly provided the Vcex.io platform, on which users could match buy and sell orders or exchange digital assets. The platform charged fees as a normal course of business, offered services in Thai, and promoted itself through activities in Thailand and online channels, amounting to a violation of Section 26 of the Emergency Decree on Digital Asset Businesses B.E. 2561 (2018). At the time of the alleged offences, Yutthana Srisuriyaporn, Siwanat Yamdee and Keerati Prasanthai held positions as authorised signatory directors and were responsible for the company's operations, and are therefore liable alongside the company under Section 94 of the same decree. The five accused are Assure Technology Co., Ltd., Yutthana, Siwanat, Keerati and Pimchaya. The case will now proceed through the investigation stage by inquiry officers, the prosecutor's decision on whether to indict, and the court's consideration, in that order. The SEC also warned the public to be cautious about using services from unlicensed digital asset businesses, as they are not protected by law and carry risks of fraud as well as money laundering.

Michael Selig, chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, said in an October 5 speech that the CFTC and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission had produced a joint interpretation on crypto assets, expressing the view that Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP and others are not securities in principle. In March, the two agencies published a joint interpretation classifying crypto assets into five categories: digital commodities, digital collectibles, digital tools, stablecoins, and digital securities. Of these, the three categories of digital commodities, digital collectibles, and digital tools are deemed not to be securities in principle. Digital commodities include Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP, as well as Solana, Stellar, and Tezos, and are positioned as assets whose prices arise not from expectations of profits based on the managerial efforts of a company or other entity, but from a functioning crypto asset system or from supply and demand. The joint interpretation also indicated that even if a crypto asset itself is not a security, it may fall under federal securities law if sold as part of an investment contract. In his speech, Chairman Selig also explained a new regulatory framework for retail crypto asset trading based on this classification, and the CFTC on the same day published an advance notice of proposed rulemaking covering retail transactions involving margin, leverage, and lending, and began soliciting public comment. Under the new framework, the agency is considering establishing a market segment called the Crypto Asset Market that would allow eligible crypto asset exchanges to operate under federal regulation, and has also presented a proposal to require exchanges that manage customer assets in aggregate to provide proof of reserves backing the crypto assets they hold.