Crypto exchange Huobi is migrating its spot trading business from Seychelles to Gibraltar

Quick Take

  • Huobi says it has received approval from Gibraltar’s financial regulator to migrate its spot trading business to the territory.
  • The exchange currently operates its spot trading business from Seychelles through an unregulated entity, Huobi’s Jeff Mei told The Block.

Cryptocurrency exchange Huobi announced Monday that it has received approval from the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission (GFSC) to migrate its spot trading business to the British overseas territory.

Huobi currently operates its spot trading business from Seychelles through a "registered but unregulated entity," Jeff Mei, director of global strategy at Huobi Group, told The Block. The move to Gibraltar means Huobi's spot trading business will be regulated by the GFSC via a licensed entity called Huobi Technology (Gibraltar) Co. Ltd., said Mei.

Huobi said the Gibraltar entity received a distributed ledger technology (DLT) license from the GFSC in December 2018, but it was only for institutional brokerage and over-the-counter (OTC) services. Now that the spot trading business has also been approved, the exchange said it can begin migrating all of its spot trading users to the licensed entity.

"The Gibraltar entity will offer spot trading services globally," said Mei. He added that Huobi already has a local office in Gibraltar and is moving some of its technology infrastructure and cloud hosting in the territory. Huobi may also expand its local team as more users are migrated, he said.

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The company's move to Gibraltar comes as it focuses on international markets and more regulatory compliance after China's latest crypto crackdown in September. With the migration, Huobi said it will be 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.

As for Huobi, the company says it has licenses in Japan (007 crypto exchange license), Hong Kong [type 4 (advising on securities), type 9 (asset management), trust, and trust or company service provider license], and in the U.S. as well (trust company license in Nevada), besides Gibraltar.


© 2023 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

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Yogita Khatri is a senior reporter at The Block, covering all things crypto. As one of the earliest team members, Yogita has played a pivotal role in breaking numerous stories, exclusives and scoops. With nearly 3,000 articles under her belt, Yogita holds the records as The Block's most-published and most-read author of all time. Prior to joining The Block, Yogita worked at crypto publication CoinDesk and The Economic Times, where she wrote on personal finance. To contact her, email: [email protected]. For her latest work, follow her on X @Yogita_Khatri5.