PATTAYA, THAILAND – A 42-year-old hotel owner sounded the alarm after more than 6.5 million baht in cryptocurrency was allegedly sold without his consent through a popular trading app, leaving under 50,000 baht while police and the platform examined a possible external breach.
The move into the public eye
Hotel owner Tewin Wongsawisutthikul approached local media on the evening of 12 March to describe what had happened and increase pressure on the operator of the trading platform. He said he hoped public attention would help speed up the investigation and recovery process.
According to his account, he had accumulated various digital assets over a longer period on a cryptocurrency exchange popular in Thailand. He said he had enabled two-factor authentication (2FA) as a protective measure for his account.
Alert emails in the night
The account holder said the irregularities began in the early morning hours, when several security warning emails arrived. These messages alerted him that something unusual was happening with his account.
He stated that he immediately contacted customer support and requested a temporary block on deposits and withdrawals. When he checked the account again in the afternoon, however, he said he was confronted with a fait accompli and most of his assets were gone.
Systematic sales from 6 a.m.
According to Tewin Wongsawisutthikul, his holdings started to be liquidated step by step from around 6:00 a.m. He said that by the end of the process, the sales had generated proceeds of roughly 6.5 million baht.
He claimed these proceeds were not withdrawn from the platform but instead were moved and reused within the same account. For him, this reinforced the impression of a targeted, automated operation rather than random activity.
Mysterious TAIKO purchase at moon price
With the entire amount, 10,538 units of the cryptocurrency TAIKO were then purchased at an extreme price of more than 600 baht per coin, according to his description. He said this single trade consumed virtually all of the earlier sales proceeds.
Normally, TAIKO traded at around 3 baht, he said. In his case, the price allegedly surged more than 600-fold within four minutes and then immediately fell back to its usual level, leaving his portfolio with an almost total loss.
Platform responds – but offers no quick solution
The hotelier stressed that he had not authorized any of the transactions in question and demanded a swift clarification of how they could have occurred despite active 2FA. He argued that the platform had a duty to explain the sequence of events and the price spike.
He said the operator of the platform informed him that the case was under investigation and that updates would be provided later.
“They told me they are looking into the incident and will give me updates later, but for me that is not enough and points to a possible security vulnerability,”
said Tewin Wongsawisutthikul, hotel owner.
Police investigate possible external access
The alleged victim filed a report at Pattaya City Police Station so that officers could formally investigate potential hacking or unauthorized access. Police were expected to review technical data and coordinate with the platform as part of the inquiry.
For investors in Thailand, the case was sensitive because it raised not only questions about account protection and app security, but also highlighted the risks of extreme short-term price swings in individual tokens. It underscored how quickly large positions could be wiped out during sudden, unexplained market movements.
Your opinion
Cases like this put trust in trading apps under severe strain, as it often remains unclear in the end whether a technical leak, social engineering, or a specific market mechanism was exploited. Even when investigations were opened, concrete answers for users frequently remained limited.
The incident also renewed debate over industry standards for investor protection. Some observers asked whether 2FA alone was sufficient, or whether stricter withdrawal locks and immediate emergency hotlines should be made mandatory on such platforms.