The Chinese cryptocurrency exchange, Huobi, just announced that it will be launching in the U.S. soon. Like many other exchanges, Huobi suffered greatly last year when China imposed their cryptocurrency ban. Since then, the company has sought shelter elsewhere and it seems they have found their latest refuge.
At the beginning of the year, Huobi relocated to South Korea and Japan and around the same time, announced its vision for a location within the United States. The exchange has registered its American hub/new office in San Fransisco, California.
The exchange is registered with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, which is a U.S regulators database. Still, CEO and founder of Huobi, Li Lin, does not believe his company has completely dodged more U.S regulations for their exchange just yet. Lin said:
“The issue is, currently there is no clear regulatory requirement for crypto-to-crypto trading platforms from the U.S. at the federal level. Other platforms like Poloniex also operate in a similar way with registration as a money service business.”
While the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission has yet to weigh in on the issue of crypto-to-crypto trading, the exchange plans on complying completely with the commission if such issues arise.
Huobi – An All-New Exchange
The new exchange will be completely different than the already functioning Huobi Pro platform. It will be made specifically for U.S. investors and will only deal with cryptocurrencies. There has been no news as to what specific currencies will be listed on the exchange platform. Huobi Pro currently holds a lot of the main cryptocurrencies but I wonder if they will have to be listed one-by-one.
Still, a new exchange for the U.S will be much welcomed as Coinbase/GDAX has its fair share of issues. Hopefully, the new Huobi exchange for the U.S will have easy onboarding and UI design.