Leading cryptocurrency exchange, Huobi Global, known to serve customers from over one hundred and thirty different countries, is disabling its US accounts, forcing the US customers to withdraw all their asset balances before 13th November 2019.
One of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges, Huobi Global, is known to expand its horizons. So it didn’t come as a surprise when it disclosed its massive-scale expansion plans after its Japanese entity, Huobi Japan, received a thumping fourteen million US dollars ($14 million) capital injection last week. Last month, it also revealed its plan to expand in Turkey, a land with the most number of cryptocurrency owners. In September, it grabbed the spotlight for spreading its wings down south in Argentina where economic crisis and foreign exchange limitations are causing people to turn to crypto.
But what does come as a surprise is amid all these expansion news stories, the exchange is suddenly taking a step backward. And that may necessarily be a bad thing.
Cryptocurrency exchange Huobi Global takes a step back from expansion
According to the official announcement, the Singapore-based cryptocurrency trading platform is planning to freeze funds from US clients to comply with the US regulatory framework. Reportedly, the exchange’s user agreement explicitly prohibits the firm from engaging with US-based customers, thus forcing Huobi to gradually close down its services to the American market and preventing any further trading or transferring of funds on the platform.
The exchange requests its US customers to return margin trading funds and withdraw all assets before 13th November 2019. An account with funds less than the minimum withdrawal limit can choose to convert to BTC/USDT before putting in the withdrawal request. In case they need assistance, they can approach the Huobi Global customer support.
Over to HBUS
That said, Huobi Global isn’t retiring from the US market altogether. Along the same lines as Binance US, it is nudging its customers to head to its exclusive US entity, the San-Francisco based exchange, HBUS. It is a platform dedicated to serving customers only from the American market and yet remains independent of its parent company.
Although the switch may cause inconvenience in the initial stages, with HBUS offering just over fifty token trading pairs, as opposed to a whopping five hundred cryptocurrency options on its parent firm Huobi Global, the US customers will eventually learn to be content with whatever is offered on the plate.
