Huobi Completes U.S. Expansion By Rebranding Partner Exchange

Huobi, a prominent Singapore-based crypto exchange, has completed its expansion into the United States by rebranding one of its newest partner platforms. On January 11, the company announced that it had licensed the San Francisco-based exchange HBUS to operate under the Huobi name. HBUS will not merely benefit from Huobi’s brand recognition: it will also be fully integrated with the Huobi website, a decision that could onboard plenty of new users.

American visitors who point their web browser to www.huobi.com will be directed to the English version of the Huobi site. Meanwhile, international users will be able to access Huobi Global at www.hbg.com. The fact that the English site is now associated with the default domain name suggests that the U.S. market is a priority for Huobi, although it is possible that huobi.com will automatically redirect users to the appropriate site in the future.

Huobi began its partnership with HBUS last July, when the San Francisco-based company HBUS Holdco, Inc. created the exchange. This was not a typical partnership, as Huobi was involved with HBUS from the very beginning. But in spite of the association, HBUS did not operate under the Huobi name for the first several months of its existence. As a result, HBUS has received very little attention: it currently experiences a trading volume of just over $200,000 in a 24-hour period.

Huobi, by contrast, handles $325 million in the same amount of time, making it one of the largest exchanges in the world. After gaining dominance in the Asian market, the company expanded its services worldwide, making forays into Australia and Europe. The company’s derivatives markets and mining pools have also been performing well, meaning that the company offers much more than an exchange.

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However, public perception of Huobi is much less favorable than its market dominance might suggest. The exchange has allegedly generated fake trading volumes, and it has also been accused of colluding with EOS block producers. These matters have neither been proven nor disproven conclusively, but the ongoing controversy could certainly hamper Huobi’s American expansion—despite the company’s best efforts.