Huobi

— History —

In September 2013, Leon Li founded Huobi as a Bitcoin trading company. He had acquired the Huobi .com domain in May the same year, as part of his plans to launch this platform in China.

In November 2013, the company received angel investment from Zhen Fund and Dai Zhikang which served as the company’s initial capital.

By December 2013, Huobi was the largest cryptocurrency trading platform with a trading volume of over 30 billion Yuan.

In 2014, Sequoia Capital injected $10 million into Huobi as venture capital. This investment propelled Huobi’s rapid growth as a digital asset trading platform.

In August 2014, the company acquired Quick Wallet, a Bitcoin Wallet provider, and had increased its turnover to about $ 4 billion.

In September 2014, there was a mix up at Huobi in which 8.100 Litecoin and 920 bitcoin were deposited erroneously into different accounts. The company corrected this error and in November the same year, it established a system reserve fund to mitigate future losses arising from erroneous transactions.

In April 2015, Huobi undertook joint digital asset research with Tsinghua University at the Internet Finance Laboratory at the University’s School of Finance.

In July 2016, the company, through the Huobi Network Blockchain Research Centre, published its research paper titled ‘Blockchain: Defining a New Financial and Economic Future.

In November 2016, the company also joined the Fintech Digital Asset Alliance, positioning it as a vital partner in digital assets research in China.

In August 2017, Huobi was involved in a controversial investment of client idle funds totaling to about $150 million. Huobi had collaborated with OKCoin to make this investment into what the company called wealth management products.

In September 2017, Huobi suffered a big blow when China banned trading in cryptocurrency and Initial Coin Offerings (ICO) on domestic exchanges. This was followed by a quick decision by the company to explore other global markets as it could no longer operate in China.

In October 2017, Huobi’s first office outside of China was opened in Korea, and the second was opened in Singapore in November the same year, becoming Huobi’s headquarters to date.

In just one month, Huobi trading volume in Singapore exceeded 30 billion RMB, which encouraged the company to expand further to Japan in December the same year.

In March 2018, Huobi made entry into the USA digital assets trading market but had to suspend operations in July the same year as the market proved non-profitable. However, the company continues to trade in HBUS, a US Dollar-backed stablecoin that the company created.

In July 2018, the company launched Huobi Cloud, a platform that was to give digital asset trading platforms a one-stop-solution.

On November 28, 2018, Huobi Derivatives Market (DM) was launched.

April 2019: Huobi launches a new platform called Huobi Prime, which is designed to offer users access to new blockchain projects before they are listed on other exchanges.

September 2019: a rumor circulated that Huobi was partnering with a Chinese Smartphone manufacturer to make Smartphones that would be enabled to trade in digital assets. However, Huobi management dispelled this rumor with an incredulous Twitter post.

January 2020: Huobi becomes one of the first cryptocurrency exchanges to launch a dedicated platform for trading Bitcoin options.

March 2020: Huobi launches a new service called Huobi Chain, which is designed to enable the creation of decentralized applications (dApps) and support the issuance of digital assets.

April 2020: Huobi announces that it has acquired the public trading book of the Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency exchange, BitTrade.

June 2020: Huobi launches a new mobile app for iOS and Android devices, which features a redesigned user interface and new trading tools.

July 2020: Huobi announces that it will launch a new cryptocurrency derivatives platform called Huobi Futures, which will offer trading in perpetual swaps and futures contracts.

August 2020: Huobi partners with Banxa, a payment provider, to enable users to purchase cryptocurrencies using fiat currencies.

September 2020: Huobi announces that it has launched a new platform called Huobi DeFi Labs, which is focused on researching and developing decentralized finance (DeFi) projects.

November 2020: Huobi announces that it has formed a strategic partnership with Fireblocks, a digital asset security platform, to improve its security infrastructure.

January 2021: Huobi announces that it will launch a new cryptocurrency exchange in Malaysia, in partnership with a local company.

February 2021: Huobi partners with a blockchain security firm to launch a new security platform called Star Atlas, which is designed to help detect and prevent fraudulent activity on the exchange.

March 2021: Huobi announces that it has launched a new cryptocurrency brokerage service, called Huobi Brokerage, which is designed to provide over-the-counter (OTC) trading services to institutional clients.

April 2021: Huobi launches a new mobile app for iOS and Android devices, which features a new user interface and additional trading tools.

May 2021: Huobi partners with a blockchain company to launch a new blockchain project called Huobi Eco Chain (HECO), which is designed to support the development of decentralized finance (DeFi) applications.

June 2021: Huobi announces that it has launched a new platform called Huobi Ventures, which is focused on investing in blockchain and cryptocurrency startups.

August 2021: Huobi announces that it has received regulatory approval to launch a new cryptocurrency exchange in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

September 2021: Huobi announces that it has launched a new platform called Huobi Labuan, which is based in Malaysia and is designed to provide cryptocurrency trading and related services to users in Southeast Asia.