Chinese cryptocurrency exchange Huobi is planning to re-enter the U.S. market more than two years after it ceased operations to comply with regulations, as reported by CNBC. But Huobi might not launch an exchange and instead could focus on other areas such as asset management after missteps last time around, according to the company’s co-founder Du Jun.
Du Jun expects asset management to be a bigger business than exchange.
“In 2018, we tried to enter the U.S. market, but we quickly withdrew ourselves because we didn’t have a strong commitment to the market at that time, and we didn’t have a good management team in the U.S.,” Du told CNBC. “I expect asset management to be a bigger business than the exchange, which echoes the traditional finance market as well,” he said, adding, “I don’t think the exchange is a necessary element for entering the U.S.” However, Du did not confirm which business they would launch first in its re-entry to the U.S.
Huobi is one of the top 10 biggest cryptocurrency exchanges by trading volume globally.
Re-entry into the back into the U.S. market could put the Chinese company in competition with companies like Nasdaq-listed Coinbase. Huobi is one of the top 10 biggest cryptocurrency exchanges by trading volume globally, according to CoinGecko. Huobi first launched its crypto exchange in the U.S. in 2018. The following year, the company said it would freeze U.S. user accounts and added that it would return to the market in a “more integrated and impactful fashion.”
The Chinese company owns an exchange business and an asset management business called Huobi Tech, which is listed in Hong Kong. The re-entry into the U.S. market is part of a bigger international expansion plan following several years of tighter crypto regulation in China, the market where Huobi was founded.
