Cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin is set to branch further into Southeast Asia, targeting the growing crypto market in Thailand. 

KuCoin is planning to launch a crypto exchange platform offering digital assets and related products in the country, according to an April 23 announcement. 

ERX Company Ltd, Thailand’s first Securities and Exchange Commission-supervised digital token exchange, has rebranded as KuCoin Thailand effective April 22, it stated. 

The crypto exchange will operate under ERX, which recently received a crypto exchange license from the Thai financial regulator. 

“We’re strengthening our ability to offer localized solutions tailored to the Thai market,” said ERX chief executive Att Tongyai Asavanund.

Existing ERX users have been migrated to the new KuCoin Thailand platform, and the KuCoin TH app is available on both Android and iOS. 

KuCoin joins an increasingly crowded Thai market 

KuCoin is entering a crowded market, as there are eight other companies licensed by the Thai SEC to operate as crypto and digital asset exchanges.

These are the WAAN Exchange, Gulf Binance, Thai Digital Assets Exchange, InnovestX Securities, GMO-Z.com Cryptonomics, Upbit Exchange, Bitkub Online and Orbix Trade.

Bitkub is the largest by far and has a current daily trading volume of around $70 million, according to CoinGecko. Comparatively, KuCoin’s global platform claims to have $3.8 billion in daily volume. 

Related: Thailand SEC plans to launch tokenized securities trading system

In January, the Thai government announced a pilot program enabling tourists to pay using Bitcoin (BTC) in a sandboxed environment on the holiday island of Phuket. However, it has yet to be launched. 

While crypto trading remains popular in Thailand, using crypto assets for payments was outlawed by the central bank in 2022. 

In early April, Thai finance regulators targeted foreign peer-to-peer crypto platforms in their latest crackdown in an effort to combat scams and money laundering. 

KuCoin is currently trying to get a settlement with the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission resolved after it was sued under the previous administration in March 2024 for violating the Commodity Exchange Act. 

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Bitcoin has shown resilience compared to the broader financial market amid macroeconomic uncertainty, but analysts caution it’s still too early to know whether the trend will last.

“We’re not quite there yet, but if Bitcoin holds strength through the upcoming CPI, as well as ongoing Powell-related and equity earnings volatility, the decoupling narrative could evolve from “temporary divergence” to “regime change,” Bitfinex analysts said in an April 23 markets note viewed by Cointelegraph.

Bitcoin’s relative strength yet to be proven as structural

The analysts said that while Bitcoin’s (BTC) relative strength against US equities “appears real,” it is yet to be confirmed as structural. The analysts warned that Bitcoin has previously seen short periods of outperformance, only to eventually fall back in line with the broader market.

Cointelegraph recently reported that Bitcoin is increasingly abandoning its stock correlation to copy gold’s upside. At the time of publication, Bitcoin’s price has posted gains of 7.68% over the past 30 days. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq are down 6.79% and 8.14%, respectively, as per Google Finance data.

Bitcoin is trading at $93,290 at the time of publication. Source: CoinMarketCap

Over the same period, Nvidia (NVDA), which has outperformed Bitcoin over the past decade, fell 15.4%. The analysts attributed the decline to the “effective ban on advanced chip exports to China and tariff-driven volatility.” In May 2024, Swan Bitcoin CEO Cory Klippsten said there is a “near zero chance of Nvidia outperforming Bitcoin over the next 10 years.”

The Bitfinex analysts described the current crypto market as a “hybrid state,” with rising macroeconomic risk on one side and an uptick in spot Bitcoin ETF inflows on the other. 

April 22 alone saw $913 million in spot Bitcoin ETF inflows, the largest since late January.

“This backdrop favors Bitcoin as the “cleanest shirt in the dirty laundry.”

They added that this reinforces Bitcoin’s position as a strong store of value, with Bitcoin dominance rising to levels not seen since late 2021. 

At the time of publication, Bitcoin’s dominance was 64.39%, according to TradingView data.

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Crypto market participants will be closely watching April’s Consumer Price Index (CPI), published on May 13, after March data showed a cooling trend that some saw as a short-term bearish signal for Bitcoin.

March’s CPI came in at 2.4% year-over-year, down from 2.8% in February, the lowest level since February 2023, according to the US Bureau of Statistics.

Meanwhile, some crypto analysts caution that other indicators suggest Bitcoin’s rally may not last.

10x Research head of research Markus Thielen said, “Given that our stablecoin minting indicator has yet to return to high-activity levels, we remain cautious about the sustainability of the current Bitcoin rally.” 

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This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

The Los Angeles Police Department has recovered $2.7 million worth of Bitcoin mining machines it alleges were stolen by a crime ring in a heist at the city’s airport.

The LAPD said on April 22 that detectives from its Cargo Theft Unit, along with the city’s Port Police, the railroad-based Union Pacific Police, and the city’s Airport Police, arrested Oscar David Borrero-Manchola and Yonaiker Rafael Martinez-Ramos over the thefts.

Authorities claimed the pair are “prominent members” of a South American crime ring tied to the theft and sale of stolen goods in and around Los Angeles.

The LAPD said searches of storage unit facilities in the San Fernando Valley, northeast of downtown Los Angeles, recovered $4 million worth of stolen goods, including the Bitcoin (BTC) mining rigs taken from Los Angeles International Airport “as the shipment was about to be loaded onto a plane headed to Hong Kong.”

Detectives also found and seized over $1.2 million in allegedly stolen tequila, clothing, shoes, speakers, coffee, body wash, and pet food.

Some of the allegedly stolen products were found at a storage facility in downtown Los Angeles. Source: Los Angeles Police Department

Borrero-Manchola and Martinez-Ramos were booked at Van Nuys Jail in the city’s northwest. Borrero-Manchola was cited for receiving stolen property and was released, while Martinez-Ramos was arrested on a no-bail warrant.

The LAPD said that “the investigation remains ongoing, and additional arrests may follow.”

Crypto mining rigs fetch top dollar 

The LAPD didn’t share the number of machines it seized or what model the rigs are, but a typical, current-model Bitcoin mining machine sells for between $3,000 to over $5,000.

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US law enforcement has recovered stolen crypto mining rigs in the past. In July, the LAPD said it arrested a man it alleged was in possession of stolen Bitcoin mining rigs worth $579,000, seizing them from a cargo van and storage unit.

LAPD detectives arrested Bryan Thola, alleging his van contained stolen Bitcoin miners. Source: Los Angeles Police Department

One of the largest thefts of Bitcoin mining rigs happened in late 2017 and early 2018 in Iceland, where a group robbed data centers to make off with over 600 machines.

The rigs reportedly ended up in China, as just three months after they were stolen, Chinese authorities seized a similar number and model of mining rigs in Tianjin, a city southeast of the capital, Beijing.

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