Huobi Digital Asset Trading Platform Review

Huobi was founded by Leon Li in 2013 and has its headquarters in Singapore, despite being registered in Seychelles. It’s arguably the biggest and most popular exchange in Asia and boasts over 1,300 employees. Before China’s crypto ban in 2017, it was the biggest and most active exchange in the PRoC, with some arguing that it still is, in spite of the ban, however, Huobi is working hard to shut down accounts and stay on the right side of the law. 

The Positives

• Huobi is ranked 4th by CoinMarketCap thanks to their sheer size, enormous daily trading volumes, and impressive liquidity.
• Few other platforms can compete with Huobi’s 827 market pairings!
• Daily reading volumes regularly exceed $10 billion and continue to grow, with their service and pricing being very appealing to the Asian market.
• Huobi is not just an exchange, it’s a game-changer that invests into viable technologies around the world, like Nigeria, Argentina, Thailand, and Russia, to expand the use of things like mining pools, wallet security, digital asset research, and more.
• The user interface is very clean and aesthetically pleasing in both the desktop app and the mobile app.
• As well as 24/7 customer service through their live chat agents in a range of languages, they also have another app called Huobi Chat. This app allows users to talk to each other in live chat rooms and is incredibly helpful as a resource for traders who want their questions answered seriously and quickly.
• The platform boasts 319 different crypto assets for users to trade.
• For users who are concerned about their security, not only does Huobi have a 20,000BTC Security Reserve, the company also stores most of its crypto assets in cold storage which is monitored 24/7. The exchange is yet to suffer a hack of any kind, a very impressive feat in this crypto-climate.
• On top of their Security Reserve, they have the Huobi User Protection Fund that is comprised of using 20% of their net revenue to purchase back their own Huobi tokens.
• Spot trading leverages are available up to 5x (try Bitmex if you want higher leverages).
• Huobi now accepts credit card payments to buy cryptocurrencies.

The Negatives

• Huobi is for trading crypto assets only, so you won’t find any stocks, forex or commodities on the platform.
• Users from the USA are not allowed on Huobi, and in November 2019, the platform investigated its users to ban and kick off any Americans who had found a way around this rule.
• In November 2020, with China getting stricter on crypto exchanges, millions of dollars worth of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are flying out of Huobi and into their rivals, like Binance. Without China, Huobi is not the same, so this makes the future of the exchange a little uncertain, although the China crypto ban started in 2017 and has dubious results.
• Huobi is still not regulated by any financial authority, which means that some users should proceed with caution.
• 2FA is not mandatory and must be enabled by users, with those users who do not use 2FA becoming exposed to potential phishing scams.
• In 2017, Huobi was caught investing $150m worth of ‘idle client funds’ into ‘wealth management products’, which rightly asks the question, what else are they doing with your crypto when your back is turned?

Which cryptocurrencies are available?

With 827 market pairings available, we are not going to list all of them, but we will state that this puts them in the top 2% of exchanges based on the availability of coin pairings.

Huobi also boasts their own cryptocurrency, the Huobi Token, which has surprised many traders by becoming the 27th ‘best’ crypto, if you follow CoinMarketCap’s ranking system. Of course, the crypto must have some function, which in Huobi Token’s case is to use it to purchase VIP status plans that unlock fee discounts. It also allows holders to access special events, get crypto rewards, and vote on exchange decisions. 

Some information about fees

Huobi’s fees are below the market average, giving them a competitive advantage over their rivals.

• Bitcoin withdrawal fee: 0.0001BTC
• Maker fee: 0.2%
• Taker fee: 0.2%

The final say

Losing the Chinese market was an enormous blow for their user base and profits, but the platform’s success in navigating their way through this sticky period shows a level of resilience that will serve them well. Resilience mixed with top quality digital products and services, low fees, and a willingness to invest in the research and development of the crypto world shows that they are here to stay. With no hacks to speak of, Huobi seems to be a pretty safe place to trade, but it’s not going to be as straightforward to get set up on as, say, Coinbase.