Huobi has been relatively quiet on the news front for the past few months. During this time, it has been hard at work developing plans to expand its trading platform to users throughout the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Africa. Its new services will be available to both retail and institutional investors with an OTC market for large crypto orders. In addition to simply expanding, Huobi is teaming up with key local players that will help define its brand name. Huobi is seeking local artificial intelligence (AI) firms in the hope of promoting AI trading algorithms to help traders maximize their crypto trading profits.
Taking Over Bittrade
As part of its expansion plans, Huobi set its sights on purchasing a majority share in Japanese regulated crypto exchange Bittrade. This instantly opened doors for Huobi to start operating in Japan and spreading its influence across the ASEAN region. Since taking over, it has scaled up Bittrades platform to bring it in line with Huobi’s high standards.
Calling on the Zuckerbergs’
Huobi has been hard at work wooing Randi Zuckerberg – the sister of Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg – to get her to join its advisory board. Zuckerberg and Jihan Wu – Bitmain CEO – have both joined Huobi’s advisory board in a bid to develop its new decentralized crypto exchange platform. While Huobi’s plans for the new decentralized exchange are not yet totally clear, it’s definitely a critical part of its new expansion push.
Trouble in China
Unfortunately, Huobi has had a tough time of things in China. The Chinese government issued a statement saying that it’s banning all commercial crypto activity and WeChat jumped straight to work. The social media platform disabled and took down Huobi’s WeChat account, essentially crippling its Chinese presence. China has continued to crack down on crypto activity in the country, and this is likely why Huobi has decided to expand beyond the great firewall of China.
Coinbase and Gemini Keeping Pace
Coinbase and Gemini – two of Huobi’s competitors – have also been stepping up their game in a bid to remain dominant. Both of the exchanges have been exploring the UK as a market, with Coinbase adding GBP trading pairs and Gemini has been tapping up UK regulators to achieve a regulated status before it invests heavily in the region. Huobi hasn’t announced plans to take over Europe yet, but once it has conquered this new set of regions, there is a good chance Europe will be its next destination.
Huobi is ramping up its game to compete with the larger exchanges out there and escape from a potentially doomed future in China. The country’s tough new anti-crypto stance is hurting the Chinese crypto industry and Huobi is looking to protect itself from any fallout.
