Huobi, founded by Li Lin in September 2013, is a digital asset trading platform based in China. The company now has offices in Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan, and the United States.
In August 2018, Huobi went public in Hong Kong. After the Chinese government banned Bitcoin exchanges in 2017, Huobi ceased Bitcoin withdrawals. Huobi China continues to operate as a blockchain consulting and research platform. On October 8, 2022, Huobi's new owner, Justin Sun, appeared as a committee member. On November 22, 2022, Huobi's Chinese brand name was changed to "Huobi" and its English name to "HTX."
Huobi was founded in September 2013 by former Oracle programmer Li Lin and marketing executive Du Jun. On November 5 of the same year, Huobi received angel investment from ZhenFund and Da Zhi Kang. On April 4, 2014, Huobi received investment from Sequoia Capital. On May 15 of the same year, Huobi Group acquired the domain name huobi.com. On August 1, Huobi launched a simulated trading platform. On September 1 of the same year, the Bitcoin trading platform went live. That month, Huobi announced through its official Weibo account that 920 Bitcoins and 8,100 Litecoins were mistakenly deposited into 27 different accounts, and the company returned the lost cryptocurrencies.
In April 2015, Huobi collaborated with Tsinghua University on the "Digital Asset Research Initiative," launching the "Digital Asset Research Project" at Tsinghua University's PBC School of Finance Internet Finance Lab. In September 2016, Huobi Group established Huobi Japan, obtaining the 00007 exchange license on September 29, 2018. By the end of 2016, Huobi's cumulative transaction volume reached 2 trillion RMB.
In October 2017, Huobi Group established its headquarters in Seoul, founding Huobi Korea and beginning trading in March of the following year. On December 7, 2017, SBI Group announced a partnership with Huobi, establishing two virtual currency exchanges, SBI Virtual Currency and Huobi Japan.
On August 27, 2018, Huobi Group acquired Hong Kong-listed company Pantronics Holdings (HKEX: 01611), later renaming it "Huobi Technology." In the same month, in a reverse takeover, Huobi acquired 74% of the shares of Hong Kong electronics manufacturer Pantronics Holdings and listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
In December 2018, Huobi obtained a DLT license in Gibraltar.
On January 11, 2019, Huobi EOS Exchange launched in trial operation. In August 2020, Huobi Technology obtained SFC Type 4/9 licenses from the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission.
By the end of March 2021, Huobi Technology reported an annual profit of 54.1 million HKD, with revenues increasing by 122.8% to 262 million HKD and a gross margin of 51.2%. In April 2021, Huobi donated 7 Bitcoins to UNICEF, contributing a total of $1 million. In May 2021, Huobi announced the establishment of a $100 million Huobi Venture to invest in DeFi and NFT sectors.
In October 2020, Huobi Labuan obtained a digital asset trading brokerage service license from the Malaysian Labuan authorities. In January 2021, Huobi Charity Limited received a public charity license from Gibraltar.
In May 2021, Huobi Mall's customer service announced the suspension of miner and derivative services for users in mainland China to comply with the latest industry regulatory policies. In September 2021, Huobi announced it would suspend new user registrations from mainland China and planned to phase out existing mainland China user accounts by December 31, 2021, in compliance with the latest cryptocurrency ban from the Chinese government. Co-founder Du Jun stated that while their past strategy was to operate legally in China, they must now face the global market. Previously, transactions in China accounted for about 20% of global volume.
By the end of August 2021, Huobi Hong Kong Trust's assets under custody exceeded $1 billion. In September, Huobi signed a memorandum of understanding with the Investment and Enterprise Department of the Kyrgyz Republic for potential business cooperation in cryptocurrency trading projects.
In September 2021, the Thailand Securities and Exchange Commission suspended the services of Huobi's local cryptocurrency exchange branch and proposed to the Ministry of Finance to permanently revoke Huobi's business license in the country. After the suspension, Huobi had three months to return all assets to its customers.
In October 2022, About Capital acquired the shares held by Huobi founder Li Lin. On November 22 of the same year, Huobi announced that it would change its Chinese brand name from "Huobi" to "Huobi" and announced plans to expand business in the Caribbean region, enhancing capital investment in Southeast Asia, Europe, and other regions.
In September 2023, Huobi announced its rebranding to HTX.
