Major Chinese cryptocurrency exchange Huobi has chosen Singapore as its new regional headquarters after moving most of its business operations to the country, according to media reports. Additionally, the company also plans to mark its presence in the European market after establishing a regional presence in the UK or France by 2023.
After China banned crypto exchanges in 2017, Huobi set up an entity in Singapore and the latest launch of their new headquarters in the country cements the fact that there is no going back from here. Earlier this year, Beijing also imposed stricter regulations on cryptocurrencies by purging local Bitcoin miners and declaring cryptocurrency transactions illegal in late September. Earlier this month, the company also announced that it will remove Singaporean users from its platform to comply with the country’s regulations.
Instead, its position will be taken over by Huobi Singapore as the company is still in process of getting a license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
Edward Chen, executive director and CEO of Huobi told the media, “We would like to assure local users that Huobi Singapore is here to stay for good, and we are excited to launch a new platform to better serve the needs of the local market.”
Even though the company did not explain further about its regulation issue, crypto exchange Binance has previously mentioned that it is limiting service access to Singapore users after getting a MAS warning.
Huobi was founded in 2013 and it boasts tens of millions of users across 100 countries and regions. Apart from Singapore, Huobi has offices in Japan, South Korea, and China.