China’s largest Bitcoin exchange, Huobi, has implemented a measure to prevent residents of mainland China from registering on its platform by preventing the addition of accounts with mainland Chinese phone numbers, in order to comply with the recent Chinese crackdown on crypto.
Huobi to prevent registration of new Chinese accounts
Huobi Global, often regarded as one of the “big three” in the global cryptocurrency exchange space, together with Binance and OKEx, has sought to comply with new regulations which have recently come into effect in China. The company, founded in 2013 by Leon Li in Beijing, now prevents the registration of new accounts on its exchange that use Chinese phone numbers. Onboarding of new users has not been halted in Hong Kong, however.
There is no indication that Chinese users are completely excluded from Huobi. This is not Huobi’s first confrontation with the Chinese authorities; It comes after the Chinese government in 2017 banned the hosting of cryptocurrency-fiat exchanges, to which Huobi responded by banning withdrawals from his exchange. In June 2021, Huobi banned Chinese users from trading riskier derivative-type products, in response to a crackdown by the Chinese cabinet. In July 2021, Huobi dissolved its Beijing entity.
Huobi facing resistance from Asian governments
Nine Chinese government institutions, along with the People’s Bank of China, have banned foreign stock exchanges from recruiting Chinese labor for jobs in marketing, payments, and technology, among others. Huobi has over 1300 employees worldwide in 170 countries. The People’s Bank of China also announced that all crypto-related transactions are now considered illegal in China. Huobi has also faced regulatory pushback in Thailand recently, with the Thai SEC requiring the exchange to return all assets to customers in early September 2021, after it was determined by the body that Huobi was operating with an inadequate management structure.
Huobi still has global reach
Huobi Global was established in 2013 to make breakthroughs in core blockchain technology and to bridge the gap between blockchain and other industries. Huobi has expanded into public chains, digital asset trading and wallets, derivatives, mining pools and digital asset research. Hubi recently launched the Global DeFi Alliance to establish and promote industry best practices, advance DeFi research, and promote DeFi East-West collaboration.
It has also launched a digital asset mining pool called Primepool, through which users can participate in asset-locking activities and gain rewards through staking assets on Primepool. Huobi’s head office is based in Seychelles, but has entities in jurisdictions such as Singapore, Malta, Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, and the United States of America. Huobi is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
