The Huobi Group is the leading global blockchain asset financial service provider. With a mission to make investing in alternative assets more efficient and adaptable, the company is committed to providing customers with safe, professional, and honest services based on the core principle of putting the customer first.^[1]

History

Huobi was founded in 2013 by Leon Li.  An alumnus of Tsinghua University, Li was a computer engineer at Oracle before founding Huobi.^[1]

On May 15, 2013, the Huobi Group (火币集团) acquired the huobi.com domain.  On August 1, Huobi launched a simulation trading platform, and on September 1 the Bitcoin trading platform launched.^[2]

In November 2013, Huobi received angel investors from Dai Zhikang and Zhen Fund. In 2014, Huobi raised a $10 million venture capital investment from Sequoia Capital. In August 2014, Huobi acquired Bitcoin wallet provider Quick Wallet.^[3]

In December 2013, trading volume exceeded 30 billion yuan, making Huobi China's largest digital asset trading platform at the time. In June 2016, its total transaction volume reached 1 trillion RMB, and in November 2016 1.7 trillion yuan, accounting for more than 60% of the global bitcoin exchange market.^[2]

On December 22, 2016, its daily transaction volume surpassed 200 billion yuan. In September 2017, China banned bitcoin exchanges and ICOs. In response, Huobi adjusted its business and organizational structure to promote global expansion. In October 2017, Huobi officially expanded into Korea with a new headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, and opened trading in March 2018.^[3]

In November 2017, it launched operations in Singapore with total volume in the first month exceeding 30 billion RMB. In December 2017, it launched an office in Tokyo, Japan and announced that it would set up two crypto exchanges in Japan in early 2018, through a partnership with Japanese financial group SBI Group.^[4]

In August 2018, in a reverse takeover, Huobi acquired a 74% stake in Hong Kong electronics manufacturer Pantronics Holdings, becoming listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.^[4]

HuobiToken

In January 2018, Huobi launched the HuobiToken(HT), an ERC-20 token that can be used in various ways such as for a discount on trading fees of up to 50 percent.^[2]

Huobi Token (HT) is an exchange based token and native currency of the Huobi crypto exchange. The HT can be used to purchase monthly VIP status plans for transaction fee discounts, vote on exchange decisions, gain early access to special Huobi events, receive crypto rewards from seasonal buybacks and trade with other cryptocurrencies listed on the Huobi exchange.^[4]

HT is strictly limited to a fixed total of 500-million tokens, never to be increased. 300-million tokens, 60% of the total, will be distributed over 15-days.^[2]

HT did not have an initial coin offering (ICO). Users only got HT by purchasing 'Point Card' on Huobi Pro. The Point Card is Huobi's pre-paid card for basic service charge. 1 point = 1 USDT.^[2]

Huobi Tokens (HT) can be exchanged to USDT, BTC and ETH in Huobi Pro.^[2]

In addition, each quarter Huobi Pro will use 20% of its profits to buyback the Huobi Tokens in the open market. All the HT that were bought back will be allocated to Huobi Investor Protection Fund (HIPF) in a certain proportion.^[4]

Huobi Group

Huobi Group is a leading global digital asset financial service provider. Currently, Huobi Group has invested in more than sixty upstream and downstream enterprises. Huobi has established compliance service teams in Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, Brazil, Hong Kong and other countries to deliver its secure and credible digital asset trading and asset management services to millions of users in over 130 countries.^[2]

Milestones

2013

In September, · Huobi.com, the Bitcoin spot trading platform, is launched;In November, · Huobi raised investment from ZhenFund and Angel Investment;In December, · Huobi became China's largest digital asset trading platform with a cumulative turnover of over 30 billion RMB;^[4]

2014

In April, · Huobi became the world's largest digital asset trading platform with a cumulative turnover of over 120 billion RMB;In April, · raised investment from Sequoia Capital;^[1]

2015

In April, · Huobi sponsored the "Digital Asset Research Project" at the Internet Finance Laboratory of Wudaokou Finance Institute of Tsinghua University (formerly the Graduate School of the People's Bank of China);^[2]

2016

In June, · the cumulative turnover reached 1 trillion RMB;In July, · Huobi Research published the first easy-to-understand and science-based work "Blockchain: Defining a New Financial and Economic Future";In November, · Cumulative turnover of Huobi Group has reached 1.7 trillion RMB, accounting for more than 50% of the global bitcoin exchange market.In December, · Huobi co-sponsored China's first Fintech Digital Asset Alliance (Shenzhen) and the Fintech Research Institute under the guidance of the Shenzhen Municipal Government;In December, · Cumulative turnover of Huobi Group reached 2 trillion RMB;^[2]

2017

In July, · Cumulative turnover of Huobi Group reached 4 trillion RMB;In October, · Huobi initiated its global strategic layout by establishing Huobi Korea Team and putting it into official operation;In November, · Huobi Global was officially launched and started operation with cumulative turnover of the first month exceeding 4.6 billion USD. The Singapore Operation Team was also estalibshed.In December, · Huobi completed its business layout in Japan with the Group's cumulative turnover exceeding 850 billlion USD;

2018

In January, · Huobi Token was launched;In February, · Huobi Autonomous Digital Asset Exchange (HADAX) was launched to support a vote for listing; In March, · Huobi Korea, Pool, Global Ecosystem Fund and Global Elites will be available soon. In March, · Huobi signed a cooperation agreement with 360 Group on financial technology security services.

In March, · Huobi signed a cooperation agreement with the Data Science Institute of Imperial College London on the research of digital currency trading data;In March, · Huobi signed a cooperation agreement with Blockchain Global on co-building Huobi Australia with strategic investment;In April, · Cumulative turnover of the Group exceeded 1 trillion USD.

In July, · Huobi Cloud was officially launched.In August, · the Group acquired Pantronics Holdings Ltd (01611.HK), a Hong Kong-based listed company.In August, · cumulative turnover of the Group exceeded 1.2 trillion USD.In September, · the Group acquired BitTrade, a licensed exchange based in Japan.^[2]

Team Members

• Chairman, Founder and CEO: Leon Li
• COO: Jiawei Zhu
• CTO: Xianfeng Cheng
• CFO: Chris Lee
• CSO: Simon Wu
• CHO: Bessie Pang