Huobi said to leave China right before gov’t announcement to ban all crypto transactions
The largest crypto exchange in China, Huobi, had a shareholder meeting on September 24. After the meeting, it was announced that the shareholders of the company had unanimously decided to call quits in China and leave the country.
Shortly after the announcement of the largest crypto exchange in the country, the Chinese government announced its decision to ban crypto transactions and services in the country. Huobi was established in China and managed to become a leader in the local market.
Even though it has struggled with increasing government scrutiny, the company still managed to grow and become a true leader in the market. The decision was made mainly due to the current situation in China in terms of crypto regulations and the stance of the Chinese government against the crypto industry.
The massive crackdown of China on crypto exchanges and miners has been ongoing for some time now. The largest-ever crackdown on crypto miners took place a few months ago, sending the largest crypto miners out of the country. One of the few large crypto trading companies still remaining in China was Huobi, which also had to leave the country.
Huobi’s Decision
While announcing the decision, Huobi said that it had ceased all account registration activities for new users in mainland China immediately. In addition, China’s largest crypto exchange also announced that it would remove all of the existing Chinese users by the end of the year. Despite the fact that China has long tried to get rid of the crypto players in the country, this is the biggest result that the Chinese government’s steps have had.
One of the co-founders of the company, Do Jun, said that in the past, they actively communicated with the country’s regulators to find ways to still legally offer trading services in the country. However, he said that this time, there was no other way and no place for discussions.
The company representatives said that they now aim to go global and become leaders at a larger scale. For many years, companies like Huobi were hoping to somehow find ways to stay in the market – looking for ways to avoid the red lines and remain in the local market.
In fact, over the past few years, Huobi even managed to create some ties with the Chinese government, while looking for ways to remain in the market. But even after such connections, the company was unable to endure the strong resistance from the Chinese government, to get rid of the crypto players in the country.
Focused on Global Expansion
The Chinese giant announced that they are now very much focused on global expansion. They will be following the steps of top exchanges like Binance as well as miners like Bitmain that have already shifted their services out of China.
Over the past few months, Huobi has been working on hiring people in countries like Turkey and Brazil. The company also noted that they plan to employ as many as 3,000 people this year alone. Having over 10 million clients around the world, including countries in Southeast Asia, Middle East, as well as Europe, the company aims to become even larger around the world.
Founded in 2013, Huobi has quickly managed to become a true leader in the Chinese market. From a small Beijing startup, Huobi quickly transformed into the most active Bitcoin exchange around the world, attracting Chinese traders with offerings such as commission-free transactions.
But, there were many other things that made Huobi such an attractive crypto exchange. One of the main things was the fact that trading at this exchange was very simple. In addition to a user-friendly interface, the Huobi trading bot and trading automation made investing in cryptocurrencies a very easy venture for the Chinese tech-savvy younger generation.
This made crypto trading very easy to access for locals in the country, especially for those who had regular, full-time jobs but wanted an additional way of income.
China’s Crypto Battle
The Chinese battle against crypto has been ongoing for a long time now. The largest crackdown on the crypto industry in China happened this year, which saw many of the crypto miners exiting China. Huobi started working on further expansion of its services back in 2017, setting up an entity in Singapore.
The recent rules announced by the Chinese government on September 25 suggest that crypto transactions in China are fully banned. This includes services provided by offshore exchanges. In addition, the local laws also restrict platforms around the world to hire locals in China for roles such as marketing, tech, or payment.
The Huobi Group’s representative announced that the company now generates almost 70 percent of all its revenue outside of China. It was also noted that out of the 2300 people employed by Huobi 700 are involved in the exchange operations. It was announced that the retail traders in China accounted for about 20 percent of Houbi’s trading volume.
Earlier this year, China had its largest crypto crackdown in history. As a result, the majority of the crypto miners in the country had to leave and find new jurisdictions for their activities. While some found homes in neighbouring countries, others are expected to move further in the western countries.
