Thai VC fund acquires troubled exchange Zipmex for $100M: Report

Zipmex reportedly plans to use crypto assets received from the acquisition to unlock frozen customer accounts on the platform by April 2023.

After weeks of negotiations on a potential buyout of Zipmex, venture capital fund V Ventures has reportedly reached a deal to acquire the embattled cryptocurrency exchange.

V Ventures, a subsidiary of Thoresen Thai Agencies (TTA) public company, is looking to purchase a 90% stake in Zipmex crypto exchange, Bloomberg reported on Dec. 2.

The VC fund is about to acquire Zipmex for about $100 million in digital assets and cash, anonymous sources familiar with the matter claimed. Citing a court hearing on Friday in Singapore, the report says that Zipmex was offered $30 million in cash and the rest in crypto.

According to the court hearing, Zipmex is planning to use cryptocurrency assets received from the transaction to unlock frozen customer accounts on the exchange by April 2023.

The acquisition report comes weeks after local media reported that V Ventures and Zipmex were on track to sign a majority buyout agreement.

As previously reported, Zipmex abruptly halted withdrawals on its platform in July 2022, citing a “combination of circumstances” beyond its control. The exchange, which has operations in Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia and Australia, subsequently started a restructuring process after getting three months of creditor protection from Singapore’s High Court.

Zipmex has also filed applications to extend the moratorium until April 2023 to support the restructuring efforts, which is pending consideration by the Singapore court.

Despite facing major issues, Zipmex has apparently continued offering some of its services after partially resuming withdrawals. According to Zipmex’s website, the exchange has been altering some of its withdrawal fees as well as listings over the past two months.

Zipmex and TTA did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s request for comment.

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The news comes shortly after Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accused crypto exchange Zipmex and its co-founder Akalarp Yimwilai of violating local laws. The authority specifically argued that Zipmex had not provided information on digital wallets and crypto transactions in compliance with the country’s Digital Assets Act.