Cryptocurrency Trading Platform Huobi Launches Exchange Traded Fund

Cryptocurrency trading platform Huobi is pushing forward with its aggressive expansion into new regions — and new products as well.

Today, June 1, 2018, the Singapore-based exchange is launching a crypto-based exchange traded fund (ETF), a diversified portfolio that allows traders to invest in a basket of cryptocurrencies all at once.

According to the company’s announcement, the fund, Huobi 10 (HB10), will replicate the Huobi 10 index, which Huobi revealed last month. Huobi 10 is designed to track the top 10 virtual currencies or those with largest market value and most liquidity. According to Huobi, the fund is currently open for subscriptions with some limitations.

For instance, traders may only purchase HB10 with cryptocurrencies — namely, bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), the dollar-pegged cryptocurrency tether (USDT) and Huobi’s own cryptocurrency, the Ethereum-based Huobi Token (HT). Investment with fiat currency is not allowed. After a subscription period, HB10 is tradable on the exchange with tether.

Huobi charges a subscription fee based on the amount invested. Those who invest 100 to 500,000 USDT are charged 0.10 percent; investments between 500,000 to 1 million USDT are charged 0.05 percent, and institutional investors who put in more than 1 million USDT pay no fee. The maximum investment is 10 million USDT.

The fund will only be tradable on Huobi Pro, Huobi’s existing crypto-to-crypto trading platform, and subject to the exchange’s usual restrictions; that is, the fund will be available to global investors, including those in China, but not U.S.-based customers, given the stance U.S. regulators have taken on cryptocurrency ETFs.

So far, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has poured cold water on cryptocurrency ETFs. Earlier this year, following recent filings from firms seeking to list cryptocurrency-related ETFs, Dalia Blass, director at SEC’s Division of Investment Management, wrote that there are “a number of significant investor protection issues that need to be examined before sponsors begin offering these funds to retail investors.”

It has been a big week for Huobi. Earlier today, as reported by China Money Network, Huobi teamed up with Chinese investment firm NewMargin Capital and South Korean securities firm Kiwoom Securities to launch a $93 million investment fund in blockchain companies in the two countries. Yesterday, the cryptocurrency exchange made headlines when it was reported to be setting up an office in Brazil.