Major crypto exchange Huobi has become the latest victim of the so-called “Crypto Winter” as its Australian subsidiary has subsumed under the global wing.
Huobi Australia announced the takeover via a Tweet on February 25.
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Please be informed that starting 26th February 2019, all operations, including the management of our platform, social media channels and customer support will be managed by our team at Huobi Global headquarters. pic.twitter.com/JP1lInoblt
— HuobiAustralia (@HuobiAu) February 25, 2019
Explaining the sudden move, Huobi’s Australian arm noted on its Facebook page: “Please be informed that due to poor market conditions and associated recent staff redundancies here at Huobi Australia, all operations, including the management of our platform, social media channels and customer support will be managed by our team at Huobi Global headquarters starting 26th February 2019.”
Further elaborating the exchange’s future move in the Australian market, the post added: “We have decided not to explore adding a fiat on-ramp but rather will keep the exchange in its current coin-to-coin format. We have therefore decided to forgo our AUSTRAC registration as it is only required for fiat on-ramps.”
Dominant Bear Turned Out to be a Massive Issue
Huobi’s operational concerns in the slumped market surfaced last December, as the exchange revealed that it was going to cut short its “worst-performing employees” from its workforce rather than the pre-planned restructuring of the organization.
Huobi is not the only exchange or blockchain business to be affected by plunging crypto prices as Chinese crypto mining hardware manufacturer Bitmain and Canadian crypto exchange Coinsquare were also forced to take similar steps in recent months.
Will the Growth Sustain?
However, despite the slow down, Huobi Global has doubled its trading volume in 2018 compared to the recorded numbers in 2017. The Singapore-headquartered exchange’s CEO Leon Li also revealed that it has expanded significantly in 2018 and added hundreds of staff as the headcount went from 400 in early 2018 to more than 1,300 in 2019.
Huobi also launched a digital asset derivative trading platform – Huobi Derivatives Market (Huobi DM) – last December and, as reported by Finance Magnates at the time, the trading volume in the platform touched $12 billion within a month and surpassed the $20 billion mark just a few days later.
The cryptocurrency exchange also made its presence stronger in Russia with the opening of a new office and the launch of the Russian version of its platform last November.
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