Huobi wants to strengthen its presence in Hong Kong with new expansion plans, which go through a license application and the opening of a Hong Kong unit, dedicated to customers in the region with a specific profile.
Huobi in Hong Kong: license application and launch of the regional branch
In series of tweets from last February 20, Justin Sun announced that Huobi Global has asked a Licence trading cryptos in Hong Kong. This regulatory clearance will allow the cryptocurrency exchange to increase the range of services and offerings it can legally provide to its clients in the region.
Besides these license applications, Justin Sun also announced Huobi’s plans for the launch of its new Hong Kong branch, named Huobi Hong Kong, which would be ” fully compliant with local regulations », and which will focus on providing crypto trading services to institutions and to high net worth individual investors of the region.
Hong Kong is therefore of major interest to Huobi. In interview on February 10 on Bloomberg TV, Justin Sun discussed the reasons that prompted the crypto exchange to expand into the region. The founder of Tron (TRX) indicated that Hong Kong is “ one of the experimental areas for the development of crypto in China “.
Hong Kong and cryptocurrencies: a favorable regulatory environment
Despite the collapse of the giants, like Celsius or of FTXwhich marked many jurisdictions, Hong Kong displays an image crypto friendlyattracting a growing number of players in the sector.
Recently, regulators in the region have notably made efforts in favor of Crypto ETFs. In her October 31 speech, Deputy CEO of the Securities and Derivatives Commission (SFC), Julia Leung, said the Hong Kong regulator planned to give its approval to certain crypto ETFsincluding exchange-traded funds linked to futures contracts Bitcoin (BTC) And Ethereum (ETH) of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME).
And apparently, this speech did not fall on deaf ears. Although the crypto winter continues, in January, Samsung Venture Investment Corporation announced its intention to launch a Bitcoin ETF on the Hong Kong market.
In addition to this openness to crypto ETFs, regulators are also working in favor of the regulatory claritywith the introduction of a licensing regime for virtual asset service providers operating in Hong Kong, including crypto exchanges like Huobi.
Like other cryptocurrency platforms, the bear market also hurt Huobi’s finances, which had to separate from part of its staff. However, the crypto winter does not prevent industry players from moving forward with their development plan, with a view to a return to good weather on the markets.
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