Huobi, a cryptocurrency exchange platform originally from China, is looking to expand into the European market with a new office in London to be launched later this year, the company announced on Monday.
Huobi operates several brands covering cryptocurrency trading, asset management, among other services. Huobi Pro is the affiliate headquartered in the Seychelles that operates its popular cryptocurrency trading platform, supporting 100 trading pairs.
According to data from CoinHills.com, the euro and British pound have been the third and fourth most used national currencies for Bitcoin trading in the past six months. Trading volume from the UK ranks fifth in the world making the UK the largest crypto trading center in Europe.
Chern Chung, Huobi’s senior business development manager for Europe, said in a statement:
“Our research shows that London will become one of the most active trading scene across all of Europe. Entering the UK market is an indispensable move for Huobi to become the number one global cryptocurrency exchange.”
By establishing its regional office in London, Chung said Huobi aims to send a clear message: that the exchange wants to “go mainstream” and comply with relevant regulations.
On April 17th, Huobi held an event in London to announce its arrival in Europe and present some of its ongoing initiatives. In particular, the company unveiled the Huobi Ecosystem Fund and Huobi Labs, two new initiatives to help accelerate promising startups.
Huobi Labs aims to support blockchain businesses and blockchain startup projects by providing business consultancy and services such as strategy planning, business model design, token economics design, technical development, legal and compliance, team building, financing, community management and market value management.
The Huobi Ecosystem Fund aims to identify, incubate and invest into the best blockchain projects in Europe and provide them with insights for possible expansion plans into the Chinese and overall Asian market.
Huobi also unveiled four token projects: Bit Capital Vendor (BCV), a digital asset management project, Elastos (ELA), which aims to create a new kind of Internet, LinkEye (LET), a credit platform, and the Penta Network, which aims to serve as a platform connect “the world of blockchain with the real world.”
The announcement of Huobi entering the European market comes just a month after the cryptocurrency exchange registered its US-based operation with the US government ahead of a planned rollout of crypto-to-crypto trading this spring.
HBUS Inc. is registered with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network as of March 21, according to the US regulator’s database.
Huobi said in January that it was opening an office in San Francisco to serve as the hub for its push into the American market.