“Domestic” exchanges accelerate their overseas expansion: Huobi goes east, OK goes west

Xiaocong APP reported on September 13, author: Liu Wan, please indicate the source for reprinting.

Domestic cryptocurrency market regulation continues to tighten, and the two giants Huobi and OKCoin are constantly taking actions to expand overseas markets.

According to Xiaocong, on September 12, Huobi Group announced that it has acquired a controlling stake in BitTrade, an exchange with a legal license in Japan. Huobi Japan team and BitTrade team will merge and start legal operations in Japan.

It is reported that BitTrade was founded in 2016 and holds a digital asset license issued by the Japanese Financial Services Agency (FSA). Currently, there are 16 institutions in Japan that hold this legal license. Huobi said that it will integrate with the BitTrade team in the future and vigorously develop the Japanese market.

"Relying on BitTrade's leadership team and its qualifications with a Japanese government license, this is just the beginning, and we will develop BitTrade into the most leading trading platform in the Japanese crypto market." Huobi's board secretary and CFO Li Shufei said in a report by MarketsInsider.

In addition, on September 12, OKCoin also released an "Announcement on Expanding the U.S. Cryptocurrency Market Service Area" on its official website, stating that from now on, OKCoin International will provide cryptocurrency trading services to 21 states in the United States, including fiat currency trading in California, namely U.S. dollar trading.

These actions by Huobi and OKCoin may be an attempt to develop overseas markets amid the continued tightening of domestic regulations.

According to Xiaocong APP, in August, the Shanghai Securities News quoted people close to the rectification office as saying that relevant departments will strengthen monitoring and block 124 cryptocurrency transactions; the central bank and five other ministries and commissions issued a joint announcement again, in the "Risk Warning on Preventing Illegal Fund Raising in the Name of "Virtual Currency" and "Blockchain", pointing out that some virtual currency projects have illegal fund raising, pyramid selling, and fraud activities. In addition, Chaoyang District, Beijing, also issued a notice prohibiting virtual currency promotion activities.

During the same period, giants such as BAT actively cooperated with supervision off-site, and many blockchain media public accounts were blocked by Tencent. According to BABI Finance statistics, as of September 10, 39 cryptocurrency WeChat public accounts have been blocked.