Huobi

Market position

One of the longest-running cryptocurrency exchanges, with a stated 12 years of operating security history. In late 2016 Huobi was reported to account for more than 60% of the global bitcoin exchange market by volume, and as of March 2018 it processed around US$1 billion in trades daily. Forbes has described Huobi as the third-largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world. The site cites industry awards including 2025 Best Exchange of the Year and Best Centralized Exchange (2024).

Positions itself on longevity and asset security — 12 years of operation, published Proof of Reserves at a 1:1 ratio, a full withdrawal guarantee and a layered cold/hot/warm/multi-party offline wallet architecture — combined with a broad instrument set spanning spot, futures, trading bots, copy trading and earn products, and an in-house exchange token (HT) that reduces user trading fees.

Technology

A centralized exchange platform with web and mobile applications, offering spot, futures, trading bots and copy trading, plus staking/earn products. Asset security relies on a mix of cold, hot, warm and multi-party offline wallets, multi-factor authentication, login anomaly alerts and cookie hijacking protection, with periodic Proof of Reserves reporting at a stated 1:1 reserve ratio.

Go-to-market

The exchange acquires users directly through its website and app with sign-up incentives (advertised rewards of up to $1,500), referral/invite codes, and token listing programs such as Huobi Prime and PrimeList that let participants buy newly listed tokens early. Growth has also come from geographic expansion into new regulatory jurisdictions and partnerships, such as a plan with Japan's SBI Group to establish two crypto exchanges in Japan.

Retail and advanced cryptocurrency traders globally, historically concentrated in Asian markets, plus users seeking yield on digital asset holdings. The exchange ceased serving customers in mainland China in 2021.

Geography

Headquartered in the Seychelles, with offices in Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan and the United States. Founded in China, it opened a Seoul headquarters in 2017 with trading from March 2018, launched in Singapore in November 2017, opened a Tokyo office in December 2017, announced a US launch in March 2018 and set up Huobi Labuan in Malaysia in November 2020. It stopped serving mainland China customers in September 2021.

History

After launching in 2013, Huobi received angel investment from Dai Zhikang and Zhen Fund in November 2013 and a $10 million venture investment from Sequoia Capital in 2014; that August it acquired Bitcoin wallet provider Quick Wallet. Trading volume exceeded 30 billion yuan in December 2013, cumulative volume reached 1 trillion RMB by June 2016 and 1.7 trillion yuan by November 2016. In September 2014 the company disclosed that 920 bitcoin and 8,100 litecoin had been wrongly credited to 27 accounts and were subsequently returned. Chinese regulatory action — a 2017 halt to Bitcoin withdrawals and the September 2017 ban on ICOs and domestic exchange trading — prompted a restructuring toward international expansion into Korea, Singapore, Japan, the United States and Malaysia. In August 2018 Huobi took a 74% stake in Hong Kong-listed Pantronics Holdings in a reverse takeover to become publicly listed. It exited mainland China in September 2021, was acquired by Justin Sun in 2022 per Bloomberg, and rebranded to HTX in September 2023.

Risks & controversies

In August 2017 Huobi and OKCoin drew criticism for investing 1 billion yuan (about $150 million) of idle client funds in wealth-management products. China's 2017 ICO and exchange trading ban left holdings of many users, including Huobi customers, effectively worthless, and the company halted Bitcoin withdrawals. In May 2026 the UK government sanctioned HTX over alleged violations of international sanctions against Russia, and in July 2026 the European Union sanctioned HTX as part of a Russia sanctions package; HTX was reported to have responded by making its transactions harder to track. Founder Li Lin's sale of the exchange to Justin Sun was followed by public disputes and lawsuits over naming rights and alleged mismanagement.