Biktub, Thailand’s largest crypto exchange, is hiring advisors for its 2025 IPO.

Bitkub Capital Group Holdings, the owner of Thailand’s largest crypto exchange, is planning an initial public offering in 2025, CEO Jirayut Sruprisopa said in an interview on Monday.

Jirayut said Bitkub plans to go public on Thailand’s stock exchange in a bid to raise the company’s profile and raise money. Bitkub is in the process of hiring financial advisors for the listing, he added.

Bitkub previously signaled plans to hold an IPO in Thailand in a 2023 letter to shareholders, without specifying a target timeframe.

Competition for crypto traders in Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy has heated up, with Binance and Kasikornbank Pcl making moves to grab market share from Bitkub over the past six months. The number of active crypto trading accounts in Thailand jumped to 238,000 in March, the highest level since September 2022, according to data tracked by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In July last year, Bitkub sold a 9.2 percent stake in Bitkub Online, its crypto exchange unit, to Asphere Innovations Pcl for 600 million baht ($16.5 million or roughly Rs. 137 crore). Jirayut said he expects Bitkub Online’s valuation, pegged at around 6 billion baht in the deal, to rise as the platform’s trading volumes approach levels not seen since the last crypto bull market in 2021.

Bitkub Online accounts for approximately 80 percent of Bitkub Capital’s revenue.

As bitcoin’s rally to record highs sparks renewed optimism, Bitkub is expanding after cutting its headcount by about 6 percent in 2022 and 2023. Jirayut said it aims to increase the size of its workforce to 3,000 people by 2025 compared to 2000 now.

SCB X Pcl, a finance company that controls the country’s largest bank by market value, in 2022 called off a THB 17.85 billion (roughly Rs 4,083 crore) plan to acquire a 51 percent stake in Bitkub Online amid heightened regulatory control.

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