Kasikornbank launches first licensed Thai digital asset custodian

Thailand’s Kasikornbank, its second-largest bank by assets, intends to launch orbix Custodian as the country’s first licensed digital asset custodian, Kasikornbank, also known as KBank, announced. orbix Custodian obtained a Digital Asset Custodian license from the Ministry of Finance and will be supervised by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The orbix Custodian’s license was granted on Sept. 13 but only announced two weeks later. The business is expected to begin operations in early 2025.

A busy month for digital assets at KBank

The launch of the custody service is the latest in a series of moves Kasikornbank has made in the crypto space. President Pipit Aneaknithi said in a statement: 

“This will lay a strong foundation for further development of digital financial infrastructure, promoting Thailand as a digital economy hub and advancing the country's digital industry, in response to government policy to accommodate future changes in the financial sector.”

Kasikornbank owns orbix Custodian through its digital-focused Unita Capital subsidiary. It joins orbix Invest and orbix Technology. The orbix Trade platform is a cryptocurrency exchange that was known as Satang before its acquisition by Unita Capital in October 2023.

orbix Technology offers blockchain infrastructure services. That division was inherited from Satang.

At the beginning of September, orbix Technology launched the Q-Bond project. Q Bonds worth 500 million baht ($15.4 million) were issued on the Quarix blockchain. The bonds have one-year maturity and a fixed interest rate of 2.38%. KBank and state-owned oil and gas company PTT were partners in the issue.

orbix Invest is a digital asset fund manager that launched in July. KBank introduced orbix Reward at the beginning of September as a customer loyalty program for orbix Trade. The customer’s first opportunity to earn an orbix Reward is after completing its Know Your Customer verification.

KBank has its finger in the AI pie too

In addition to its digital asset operations, KBank subsidiary Kasikorn Business Technology Group (KBTC) has joined AI Singapore and Google Research in developing large language models (LLMs) in Southeast Asia in Project SEALD (Southeast Asian Languages in One Network Data). The project was launched in March, and KBTG’s participation was announced on Sept. 24.

The partners are looking to create LLMs in Thai, Indonesian, Tamil, Filipino and Burmese.