Huobi to Migrate Its Cryptocurrency Spot-Trading Services to Gibraltar: Report

Huobi Group will move its spot-trading operations to Gibraltar as The Financial Services Commission of the city-state has already greenlighted the initiative, according to a recent report.

Gibraltar Caught The Attention of Huobi

Following the total crypto ban imposed by the People’s Republic of China, many local companies started migrating their services outside the borders of the most populated country. Huobi Group – one of the leading Chinese digital asset exchanges – has chosen to move its spot trading operations to the small British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar.

According to Du Jun – Co-Founder of Huobi Group – the global digital asset industry is heading “towards compliant growth,” and his company should not fall behind that trend. He opined that moving some of the services to Gibraltar is a “key milestone” as crypto-related businesses can flourish in the country:

“Gibraltar, as a highly experienced, sophisticated, and globally recognized international financial services center, fits our needs well.”

It is worth mentioning that during a shareholder meeting in September, Huobi founders and backers voted unanimously that the company should leave the Chinese market. Shortly after, the People’s Republic of China reiterated its cryptocurrency ban, and the trading venue moved part of its operations to Singapore.

It seems like Huobi is willing to drastically change the digital asset environment where it operates: from the hostile stance in China to the crypto-friendly borders of Singapore and now Gibraltar. The latter is among the leaders in terms of blockchain adoption. It has a regulated cryptocurrency regime designed to protect businesses that deal with the asset class.

As Albert Isola – Gibraltar’s Minister for Digital and Financial Services – noted not long ago, the British Overseas Territory is “the first jurisdiction to have a distributed ledger technology DLT legal framework in place to license and supervise firms in this space.”

Huobi Stopped Accepting New Users form China

The Chinese crackdown on crypto forced Huobi to suspend new users opening accounts with mainland China mobile numbers and planned to block existing local clients from accessing its platform by the end of 2021.

“To comply with local laws and regulations, Huobi Global has ceased account registration for new users in Mainland China. Huobi Global will gradually retire existing Mainland China user accounts by 24:00 (UTC+8) on Dec 31, 2021, and ensure the safety of users’ assets,” Huobi officially announced.

Still, the restrictions did not apply for Hong Kong users, and for the moment, they can open first-time accounts.