Bitget buys a way into Thailand weeks after its $388M hack

Crypto exchange Bitget says it is behind a deal to buy GMO-Z.com Cryptonomics, a licensed Thai exchange, less than a month after attackers drained about $388 million from its hot and warm wallets. The buyer is BTGT Management (Thailand), a company in which Bitget says it holds an interest, according to an announcement shared with Cointelegraph. Bitget would not say how large that stake is or what it is paying.

The deal in brief

• Target: GMO-Z.com Cryptonomics runs the Z.com EX exchange, launched in February 2021 and listed by Thailand's Securities and Exchange Commission as a licensed digital-asset exchange operator.
• Seller: Japan's GMO Internet disclosed the sale to BTGT Management in a filing on Sept. 24 and is targeting completion on Oct. 31, subject to regulatory approval and other conditions.
• Why: CEO Gracy Chen called Thailand an important part of Southeast Asia's digital-asset market and said the deal lets Bitget set up local operations.
• Today's status: Bitget's own terms of use, updated Oct. 16, still list Thailand as a prohibited jurisdiction, so the licensed entity is its route in.

Our take

The timing is awkward. GMO's filing landed on the same day as the September breach, in which, by Bitget's account, attackers exploited a flaw in a third-party security product and pushed through fraudulent withdrawal commands. Bitget says customer balances were not affected and that it finished restoring withdrawals on Oct. 2. Last week it also began discontinuing services for some users, calling it a one-off exercise.

None of that blocks a licence purchase, and buying a regulated local operator is a normal way to enter a market where you are not allowed to serve customers directly. But Thailand's SEC will be judging the new owner's controls, not just the target's paperwork, and so should users. A hack of this size is exactly the kind of event that should prompt questions about custody, insurance and incident reporting, and Bitget has so far said little in public about how the third-party weakness was closed.

For Thai traders, a domestic licence would bring local oversight that an offshore account does not have. It does not change the basic rule that coins left on any exchange depend on that exchange's security; our guide on how to store crypto safely explains the alternatives.