"Quick when you come, and calm when you leave", this is the deepest impression Huobi has left on users in mainland China.
In 2013, when the industry was just emerging, Huobi quickly established a trading platform to go to the market to meet the strong trading needs of users; in the following years, it has been running smoothly, and has extended different business lines to provide diversified services; in 2021, regulations will become stricter, Huobi actively responded to the policy to carry out orderly withdrawals, ensuring 100% redemption of user assets.
The supreme principle of "customer first" has been implemented throughout, which has enhanced its credibility and laid a solid brand foundation for moving overseas. The data shows that Huobi Global's trading volume has gradually picked up since the "clearing" and is becoming one of the encryption platforms with the largest increase in overseas users in the near future.
At the same time, Huobi began to exert its strength gradually at the overseas strategic level, and made frequent moves. In addition to recruiting a large number of overseas employees, it is also constantly trying business innovations and launching various large-scale activities to attract global digital asset enthusiasts.
According to people close to Huobi, Huobi has already shifted most of its resources to the overseas compliance market. In the future, it will deploy in NFT, DeFi, Web3.0 and other related fields, transforming into an international comprehensive blockchain group.
1. Customer first, orderly return
On September 24, 2021, the "Strictest Prohibition in History" was introduced. Ten ministries and commissions including the People's Bank of China jointly issued the "Notice on Further Preventing and Dealing with the Risk of Hype in Virtual Currency Transactions", clearly emphasizing that the exchange of fiat currencies for virtual currencies, currency transactions, and currency issuance are illegal financial activities. The provision of services by the Internet to residents within the territory of my country is also an illegal financial activity.
In response to national policies, Huobi immediately announced its withdrawal from the Chinese market. On September 26, Huobi Global released"Announcement on Gradually and Orderly Retire Existing Users in Mainland China", clearly stated that the registration of new users in mainland China has been stopped; for existing users whose identities are authenticated as mainland China, it is planned to complete orderly withdrawal before 24:00 on December 31, 2021, under the premise of ensuring the safety of user assets.
Driven by the leader, several encrypted trading platforms followed Huobi’s footsteps and announced to withdraw users from mainland China one after another.
In fact, the withdrawal of Huobi is not a temporary intention. According to relevant sources, as early as May 2021, with the national policy restricting the encryption mining industry, Huobi began to consider the issue of liquidation.
In order to ensure the smooth completion of the liquidation work, Li Lin, chairman of Huobi Group, led the establishment of a liquidation working group and formulated a number of principles, the most important of which is "customer first".
Specifically, the liquidation process involves many aspects, and Huobi takes care of everything in detail.
The first is to formulate a timetable for clearing and withdrawing, and strictly follow the schedule to close the deposit function, stop currency transactions, and delist OTC CNY transactions.
The second is that Huobi Global officially notifies users of specific clearing and withdrawal rules through emails, website messages, and communities, reminding users to withdraw assets in a timely manner; "Clear out completely", "leave no room".
The third is to ensure rigid payment. Huobi Global promises to pay 100% of the encrypted assets held by users, and resolutely "covers the bottom line" for users to ensure the orderly withdrawal of assets. At the same time, the coin withdrawal time will be extended, and the coin withdrawal function will continue to be retained for 1 to 2 years; in order to urge users in mainland China to withdraw coins, the official announcement stated that on February 15, 2022, users in mainland China who have not withdrawn assets will be charged management fees.
Fourth, through technical barriers, IP access in mainland China is completely blocked, and new local users are strictly prohibited from registering; even if some mainland users choose to purchase overseas identity authentication or handle institutional identity authentication, transactions will be restricted.
All of these show Huobi’s determination to withdraw.
With the punching of a set of combination punches, the work of Huobi's withdrawal continued to advance in an orderly manner. So far, Huobi Global has achieved the goal of zeroing both the number of transactions and the transaction volume in mainland China.
2. Turn around gorgeously and go overseas
In fact,
In fact,As early as a few years ago, Huobi actively carried out overseas compliance layout, and also accumulated strength for today's retreat.
According to the official website, Huobi has compliant operating entities in Japan, South Korea, Gibraltar and other countries and regions and has obtained relevant financial licenses. Its business includes digital currency trading, wealth management, investment, trust, asset management, technical services, etc. In addition, the listed company "Huobi Technology" has obtained the No. 4 and No. 9 licenses issued by the Hong Kong Securities Regulatory Commission in July 2020, and the trust license granted by the State of Nevada in December; and was approved to issue Hong Kong's first active investment strategy in March last year. Virtual fund, Huobi Trust completed registration in Hong Kong in April.
According to people close to Huobi, with Huobi officially withdrawing from the Chinese market, they have already shifted most of their resources to overseas compliance markets.
Specifically, Huobi has recruited a large number of overseas employees and established a localized operation team in an attempt to extend the influence of encrypted finance and bring more incremental users, with the focus on the Southeast Asian market and the European market. Previously, Du Jun, the co-founder of Huobi, said that Singapore will become the new base of the company, and Huobi plans to set up another global headquarters in Europe in 2023. According to official data, Huobi currently has customers covering more than 140 countries and regions on five continents (excluding mainland China), with about 2,500 employees worldwide.
On the other hand, Huobi has made frequent moves recently, from Prime to Primelist, and then to the recent large-scale event "Prime Fest: Tiger Year" launched with the Lunar New Year. Huobi Global continues to exert its strength in the spot market. With the help of the wealth effect brought about by new launches, the spot trading volume of the platform has rebounded significantly recently. Coingecko data shows that Huobi Global's trading volume has gradually picked up since the "clearance" event,At present, the spot daily trading volume ranks sixth, and it has also become one of the encryption platforms with the largest increase in overseas users recently.
Of course, for Huobi, the current achievements are not enough to rest easy, and even greater challenges are coming. After entering the global market, Huobi Global will once again face the pressure of competing products such as Coinbase and Binance. Whether Huobi can achieve leapfrog development still needs time to test.
3. How does Huobi survive?
"I want to stand, but I also want to earn this money." This is a classic line in Jiang Wen's movie "Let the Bullets Fly".
For encrypted trading platforms, to "stand up" and make money means not doing evil, promoting compliant operations, practicing the concept of user first, and truly doing a good job in trading services. In this regard, Huobi has a certain right to speak, which is also its biggest killer in occupying a place in the fierce overseas market.
Since its establishment in 2013, Huobi has always adhered to the compliant operation of the platform, and promoted the innovation and development of the blockchain and digital asset fields under the premise of not doing evil or transgressing the rules. And this time the withdrawal incident made users see the "decentness" left by Huobi at the last moment - always put the interests of users first and put customers first.
This is also evident from Huobi Global's treatment of point cards held by customers (incentives for fee credits). Due to the large number of users involved, the long time, the difficulty of statistics, etc., follow the principle of the most beneficial to customers, give priority to repurchase from the part subscribed at the highest price at the original subscription price at that time, and point cards in other market channels also have a 30% discount price Repurchase, this move has been recognized by customers.
Regarding future planning, Huobi aims to turn to a comprehensive blockchain group, continue to innovate in NFT, DeFi, Web3.0 and other related fields, and will actively explore international transformation, open up international markets and explore the latest technologies.
If it is not broken, it will not stand. Let us keep an eye on how fast and how far Huobi, which has moved overseas, can go.
