SET-listed Brooker Group's (BROOK) share price rallied 60% after the company reported to the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) on Tuesday it invested US$6.6 million (207 million baht) in bitcoin in the first quarter.
Brooker's share price continues to surge despite Covid-19 cases rising and fears of higher global interest rates to curb inflation after the US reported a rate of 4.2% for April on Wednesday, which was higher than expected.
Brooker Group is the first Thai-listed firm to report investments in cryptocurrency. At the end of the first quarter, the company reported it had purchased 122.3158 units of bitcoin at an aggregate value of roughly $6.6 million.
Chief executive Chan Bulakul told the SET the company may make a net investment of up to 1.5 billion baht in digital assets in the future, equivalent to roughly $48 million.
The investment in digital assets is to diversify its portfolio into multiple products in that ecosystem, including ethereum, binance, uniswap, enjin, filecoin, and other stablecoins or digital currencies, he said.
The investment is financed by the company's existing cash, reallocation of existing investments and the proceeds from a rights offering announced on Feb 25, said Mr Chan. That offering is scheduled for approval at a shareholders meeting on June 4.
The company plans to convert 50% of its assets into digital assets. Brooker set up a new digital asset division to explore business models that can bridge traditional and digital services and make them part of the company's normal business operations, he said.
Brooker aims to become a global leader in the digital asset industry, Mr Chan said.
The company provides investment and real estate services in addition to being an independent adviser to many domestic and international clients from the private and public sector.
The global cryptocurrency market recorded a wild fluctuation in prices this week, influenced by the US inflation rate, Elon Musk's tweets, and news of Binance, a leading global digital asset exchange, being investigated by a US regulator.
Poramin Insom, founder and chief executive of Satang Corp, recommended traders who want to buy bitcoin and ethereum wait for corrections because the two coins just reached all-time highs. Bitcoin's price will likely move along a range of $40-60 billion, said Mr Poramin.
Altcoins may be a better option for short-term trades, he said.
"Altcoins have fewer corrections when the market turns red, except stablecoins, which normally move in the opposite direction from bitcoin and the market," Mr Poramin said.
As of April 26, the number of digital asset accounts opened with licensed exchanges in Thailand was 697,780.
According to the Securities and Exchange Commission's weekly report on the digital asset market, the number of retail digital accounts is likely to keep rising.
As of May 10, bitcoin remains the most popular cryptocurrency among Thai traders, with accumulated trading worth 100 billion baht, or 18.7% of total accumulated trading this year.