Huobi Global was a crypto trading giant in China when the country was enjoying high crypto adoption. However, this is no longer the case after China declared crypto trading and mining activities illegal.<\/p>\n
The heightened regulatory risk of firms operating in China has made crypto brokerage firms close their operations in China. Huobi is among these firms, and it is now seeking to establish a location for its spot market business in Gibraltar.<\/p>\n
Huobi Global has now announced<\/a> that it is shifting its spot trading business to Gibraltar as one of its initiatives towards leaving the China market. The exchange will be shifting after getting approval from the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission (GFSC).<\/p>\n With this approval, the exchange will be moving its business from China to the affiliate Huobi Technology (Gibraltar). This will allow the exchange to continue offering crypto spot trading services using Huobi Gibraltar, a centralized digital asset exchange platform fully regulated by the GFSC.<\/p>\n Du Jun, the co-founder of Huobi Group, stated that the global cryptocurrency sector was fast shifting towards a compliant ecosystem. Therefore, Huobi seeks to be part of this compliance journey.<\/p>\n “Gibraltar, as a highly experienced, sophisticated, and globally recognized international financial services centre, fits our needs well, Jun stated.<\/p>\n On September 24, the shareholders of Huobi voted unanimously that the exchange should leave China. Huobi was the largest exchange in China before the crypto crackdown in the country. China was the home market for Huobi, as the exchange was founded in the country.<\/p>\n The shift towards Gibraltar comes as the country is marked as one of the friendly ones regarding crypto innovations. The country has a robust crypto regulatory framework, and this is making it attract crypto-based firms.<\/p>\n In an announcement issued towards the end of September, China stated that crypto trading was prohibited. This has prompted many firms offering these services to close offices in the country.<\/p>\n Binance, the largest exchange globally, has also stated that it has barred the registration of new users from China. Binance has also added that it will phase out the existing users from the platform by the end of the year.<\/p>\n <\/p>Other firms are also leaving China<\/h2>\n