(April 1): Bitkub Capital Group Holdings, the owner of Thailand’s biggest crypto exchange, is planning an initial public offering for 2025, chief executive officer Jirayut Srupsrisopa said in an interview on Monday.

Jirayut said Bitkub plans to go public on the Stock Exchange of Thailand in an effort to boost the company’s profile and raise money. Bitkub is in the process of hiring financial advisers for the listing, he added.

Bitkub had earlier signaled plans to pursue an IPO in Thailand in a 2023 shareholder letter, without specifying a target time frame.

Competition for crypto traders in Southeast Asia’s second-biggest economy is heating up, with both Binance and Kasikornbank Pcl making moves to grab market share from Bitkub in 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% stake in Bitkub Online Co, its crypto exchange unit, to Asphere Innovations Pcl for 600 million baht (RM77.9 million). Jirayut said he expects Bitkub Online’s valuation, pegged at about six billion baht in the deal, to rise as trading volumes on the platform near levels not seen since the last crypto bull market in 2021.

Bitkub Online accounts for roughly 80% of Bitkub Capital’s earnings.

As bitcoin’s rally to record highs stokes renewed optimism, Bitkub is expanding after cutting its headcount by about 6% in 2022 and 2023. Jirayut said he aims to boost the size of the workforce to 3,000 people by 2025, up from 2,000 now.

SCB X Pcl, a financial company that controls the nation’s largest bank by market value, in 2022 scrapped a 17.85 billion baht plan to acquire a 51% stake in Bitkub Online amid increased regulatory scrutiny.