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What is Huobi Exchange?
Huobi Global is a cryptocurrency spot and derivatives trading platform that was founded in 2013. The exchange is headquartered in Singapore and is known for its sheer number of coins available for trading. According to Coingecko, Huobi boasts 230 listed cryptocurrencies, as well as 561 trading pairs.
Since its inception, the trading platform has been constantly innovating its system and services more than most exchanges in the space. Before China’s crackdown on exchanges, Huobi accounted for almost 90 percent of Bitcoin’s trading volume as the nation’s biggest crypto marketplace.
Several years later Huobi became a global exchange, launching services in countries like the U.S., incorporating new business models that promote decentralization, creating token launch platforms, and many more. It currently has the second-highest trading volume among spot trading exchanges.
Security
Huobi has a very clean track record in terms of security. After all, it has never been hacked. As hard as it is to believe, this is not trivial bragging rights. Most major exchanges have undergone at least one hack in their lifetime, so much so that some investors consider hacks the risk of doing “crypto business”.
Fortunately, Huobi has been very resistance to system penetrations, making it one of the most secure crypto exchanges today.
The exchange follows industry best practices, has invested a ton on security, and has passed multiple third-party security audits. Their system offers two-factor authentication, SMS and email notifications, as well as PGP email encryption. Furthermore, they store 98 percent of their users’ total crypto assets in offline wallets, which are monitored by staff at all times.
Huobi Token (HT)
Huobi Token (HT) is an Ethereum-based decentralized asset native to the exchange, which its utility is tied to. These tokens were issued initially in 2018, with a total supply of 500 million. The proceeds were used by Huobi to recover from the loss in revenue caused by the Chinese crypto crackdown. Another purpose for the token was to increase loyalty from users.
HT serves as the fuel that powers the exchange. Its primary function is to enable users to trade with lesser fees by simply holding the token. This enables users to save while trading on the Huobi platform, especially in high-volume trades where fees add up. Furthermore, HT is the first exchange token to be approved by Japanese regulators.
The value of HT tends to rise regularly thanks to Huobi’s ‘Repurchase and Destruction’ scheme. It works like this: 20% of the revenue generated by Huobi Contract and Huobi Global will be used to regularly repurchase and burn HT. With that in mind, holders will become wealthier as the value of HT rises due to the dwindling supply.
Another benefit of holding HT is that you get to enjoy voting rights which allow you to choose the next tokens to be listed on the exchange.
Trading
Huobi predominantly offers its users a platform to buy or sell digital currencies as they see fit. They make money by charging users a small fee for every trade.
In order to trade in Huobi, you first need to create an account at Huobi.com. Simply click ‘Sign Up’ on the top-right section of the website and input the required information. Be sure you give the right information as you won’t be able to change, especially the phone number. You will be asked to confirm them afterward.
For security reasons, be sure to take advantage of the two-factor authentication feature the exchange offers.
To deposit, click on ‘Balances’, select the currency, and copy your address.
You can then click on ‘Exchange’ to begin trading. As you can see from below, Huobi features a price chart, an order book, as well as buy/sell/stop-limit options. Huobi is not as strict in implementing KYC as much as other exchanges, but they do have an ID verification section. In addition, the exchange imposes different withdrawal limits for verified and unverified users.
Huobi also offers alternative trading options for users with higher risk appetites through its futures and margin trading platforms.
Fees
Huobi normally collects a 0.2% fee for every trade for ordinary users. However, there is a way to reduce these fees depending on the user level.
A users level is determined by the number of held Huobi tokens, as well as the total trade volume in the last 30 days. If your HT holdings reach 5000, you are eligible for a massive discount; 0.07% fee for every trade.
If your 30-day trading volume reaches 1000 BTC and your HT holdings are equal or above 2000, you become eligible for the Professional Trader Tiered Fee Program. Professional users are offered insane levels of discounts of up to 0.0097% for makers and 0.0193% for takers.
Huobi Prime, Prime Lite, and FastTrack
Huobi Prime is a token launch platform that is built as a platform for Direct Premium Offerings (DPO). It aims to provide users with a more innovative and direct way to access new assets. Therefore, all assets bought from Huobi Prime are instantly deposited into each user’s account, which can be traded against HT.
The platform allows anyone to participate regardless if they are whales or regular retail investors. Furthermore, users who participate in a token launch will have the benefit of being able to purchase coins below market price.
The platform also has a rigorous screening and selection process to make sure that only the creams of the crops will be included.
Huobi Global had also launched an ultra-fast version of Huobi Prime called ‘Prime Lite’, which has since been rebranded to Huobi FastTrack. Projects that want to launch on FastTrack will also be required to meet all the thresholds for the Smartchain v2.0 evaluation model. As much as Prime, Lite projects are also entitled to be able to leverage resources from the entire Huobi ecosystem: exchanges, wallet, pool, Eco Partners, etc.
The very first project launched on FastTrack was Thundercore, which sold out 33 million Thunder Tokens (TT)
Latest Huobi News
The Huobi Group recently rebranded its derivatives exchange from Huobi DM to Huobi Futures in order to entice more investors to try out derivatives trading. Leverage trading is gaining a lot of traction this past year especially from institutions and Huobi seems psyched to capitalize on it.
In fact, Huobi Futures saw trading volumes reach $438 billion, accounting for 22% of the total trading volume. Subsequently, they’ve upgraded their system on June 14 and introduced a new product the next day — Bi-quarterly Contracts.
Huobi has also allied with 40 other companies to form the Open Payments Coalition and established PayID, a universal payment system. This payment processor has reached more than a hundred million users. Furthermore, it enables users to send or receive payments from anywhere in the world via any payment network in real-time.
Conclusion
Huobi’s unblemished security and soaring reputation makes it an ideal marketplace for retail investors and institutions alike. They offer a variety of spot trading and derivatives trading tools that cater to any type of user. Not to mention they also have a user-friendly interface. Furthermore, Huobi gives its users access to several tokens from the Asian market that aren’t available in other major exchanges.
Many investors would agree that Huobi is a top-of-the-line crypto exchange.
