Decentral Block Post

Thailand’s oldest bank is unable to acquire the country’s largest local cryptocurrency exchange due to stringent crypto regulations.

As reported by Cointelegraph in November 2021, SCB X Group, a subsidiary of Siam Commercial Bank (SCB), was set to acquire a 51% stake in Bitkub by the second quarter of 2022 as part of a plan to become a regional fintech. Now things seem to have taken a twist, as the bank has indefinitely postponed its plans to acquire the popular exchange.

As crypto trading continues to be hampered by regulation, SCB X has indefinitely decided not to move forward with a $487 million offer for a 51% stake in Bitkub, Thailand’s major cryptocurrency exchange platform.

According to a report by Nikkei Asia on Thursday, the parent company of SCB, SCB X, informed the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) that the acquisition is “still undergoing due diligence.” A senior official of SCB X told the outlet that the team doesn't know when the deal will be sealed.

The news of the reschedule was revealed earlier this month when SCB X submitted a letter to SET outlining the current situation. In a statement, SCB X CEO Arthid Nanthawithaya said:

The developers of the Dogecoin (DOGE) project have released a new update for the core software, which improves security, efficiency and user interface.

This latest update, Dogecoin Core 1.14.6, went live early on Thursday, and all the network participants were urged to upgrade to the latest version. The new update comprises numerous security fixes, modifications to the existing fee structure and several new features.

A change in the wallet backup directory's configuration and a limit on the maximum number of addnode records are also among the "breaking changes." The amount of addnodes has been restricted to 800. An essential upgrade to DOGE's fee mechanism was included in the release: dust limits for all network participants have been reduced from 1 DOGE to 0.01 DOGE.

In the event of congestion, the memory management of the network has been enhanced, according to the Github paper. The document also reveals that the network now rejects buggy messages. Dogecoin Core developer Patrick Lodder wrote in a Github document that:

“This is a new minor version release, including important security updates and changes to network efficiency. All Dogecoin Core users – miners, services, relay operators and wallet users – are strongly recommended to upgrade.”

“Easy come, easy go” was the story on July 20. The day started on a positive note with Bitcoin (BTC) climbing above $24,300, only to end the official trading day in the red after less than stellar Q2 earning news showed Tesla sold 75% of its Bitcoin and Minecraft creator Mojang Studios reversed course by deciding to ban NFTs on its platform.

A potential source of the afternoon downturn can be traced to Tesla’s Q2 earnings data, which showed that the electric car company sold off 75% of its Bitcoin holdings in order to add $963 million in cash to its balance sheet.

Shortly after the Tesla news broke, Bitcoin price pulled back from its daily high of $24,280 to $22,900, before stabilizing around $23,500.

Related: Bitcoin price hits $24K, but analysts say on-chain data points to an ‘inevitable’ pullback

Today's unexpected pullback may have also helped to bring a little market perspective to crypto traders who were ready to call for an end to the bear market.