Crypto exchange Huobi migrates spot trading business to Gibraltar

Cryptocurrency exchange Huobi announced on 8 November that it had received approval from the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission (GFSC) to migrate its spot trading business to Gibraltar, where it will be regulated by the GFSC via a licensed entity called Huobi Technology (Gibraltar) Co. Ltd.

Huobi said the Gibraltar entity received a distributed ledger technology (DLT) licence from the GFSC in December 2018, but this only covered institutional brokerage and ‘over-the-counter’ (OTC) services. It previously operated its spot trading business through a “registered but unregulated entity” in Seychelles but would now begin migrating its spot trading users to the Gibraltar-regulated entity.

“The Gibraltar entity will offer spot trading services globally,” said Jeff Mei, director of global strategy at Huobi Group. He added that Huobi already had a local office in Gibraltar and would be moving some of its technology infrastructure and cloud hosting to the territory. It might also expand its local team as more users were migrated.

The company’s move to Gibraltar comes as it focuses on international markets and more regulatory compliance following China’s latest crypto crackdown in September. With the migration, Huobi said it plans to able to attract both retail and institutional clients who want to trade through a regulated platform.

Gibraltar introduced the DLT regulatory framework in 2018, and since then, it has attracted several industry players, including Bitso, LMAX Digital, INX and eToro, further cementing its status as the jurisdiction of choice for regulated DLT and Block Chain businesses.