Huobi isn’t having much luck in China at the moment amidst the new wave of anti-crypto sentiment from the government. Huobi had its WeChat account shut down recently and was even knocked down the Baidu search engine results after an anti-crypto algorithm update. However, it’s not all doom and gloom for the crypto exchange. A subsidiary of Huobi – Huobi Japan Holding Ltd – has just acquired the Japanese regulated BitTrade crypto exchange. It is one of only 16 regulated exchanges in Japan, and will allow Huobi to expand into the Japanese market without waiting for regulations to come through.
Scaling-Up BitTrade’s Platform
Huobi has installed a handful of key members to its board and key positions within BitTrade in an effort to aggressively develop the platform and help bring it up to standard. The new leadership team will be redesigning parts of the exchange to make it more user-friendly and able to cope with higher trade volumes. BitTrade will benefit from Huobi’s experienced team and industry knowledge that makes it one of the top five crypto exchanges in the world.
Blockchain Investing in Itself
Blockchain and cryptocurrency firms are constantly investing in one another and buying each other out, creating an ecosystem of powerful platforms. Bittrex recently invested €15 million into a Maltese blockchain startup called Palladium. It is seeking to buy a majority share in a Maltese bank and merge its crypto exchange with the bank to create a blockchain bank. This trend of blockchain firms investing into other blockchain firms will only continue to grow as projects seek to expand their offering and become more powerful within the blockchain space.
The China Equation
China is currently going through an anti-crypto phase at the moment and Huobi has been directly affected by it. By gaining majority control of a crypto exchange from Japan could be seen as Huobi ensuring that no matter what happens in China, it will still be able to operate in some capacity. While BitTrade will not be rebranding to Huobi Japan any time soon, it will feature telltale signs of Huobi’s new influence.
The situation in China is looking rather bleak at the moment, so Huobi is hedging its bets by gaining majority control over a foreign crypto exchange. This will help to shore up any risks over the site’s future. It will also help to keep traders satisfied that the exchange won’t suddenly go missing if the Chinese government decides to evict it from the country.
