Huobi Global has launched an institutional brokerage (via Huobi).
Huobi Global has launched an institutional brokerage (via Huobi).
Cryptocurrencies

Huobi Brokerage launches, targets institutional clients

Huobi Group’s new digital asset brokerage platform also targets high net worth individuals

By  / January 21, 2020 /

The Huobi Group has launched a licensed brokerage platform offering trading products and services to institutional and high-net-worth investors in digital assets.

Huobi Brokerage was announced today at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. It is the first offering from Huobi Global Institutional Business, launched in November. 

Along with “competitive prices,” Huobi GIB offers liquidity pools, a regulated fiat channel, and an over-the-counter, or OTC, trading solution, according to the release. Clients will have access to real-time quotes, instant price locks, and high-volume block trades.

2020 is the beginning of the “next phase of crypto,” Ciara Sun, vice president of global business at Huobi Group, said in a statement. “2019 brought the first wave of institutional interest but 2020 is when we expect to see the industry mature with growing demand.”

Huobi GIB has grown 400%, to 1,700 clients, since its launch, the company said. The division will be “a top priority” for Huobi in 2020, it said. 

“There’s an industry-wide consensus that institutional investors and high net worth individuals will be the major contributors of growth for the crypto economy in 2020 and beyond,” Sun added.

Indeed, in December, financial services giant State Street Corporation said that a survey of large asset managers and owners found that 94% either have digital assets under management or are planning to add them in 2020. While 45% plan to maintain their holdings, 38% intend to increase them in 2020, it found.

Sun added that low liquidity is one of the main barriers to the adoption of digital assets by institutional and wealthy investors. Among the solutions Huobi GIB offers are OTC liquidity, exchange liquidity aggregation, and custom financing and lending facilities.

Huobi Brokerage will initially support Bitcoin (BTC), Tether (USDT), Paxos Standard (PAX), True USD (TUSD), USD Coin (USDC), and its own HUSD stablecoin. Huobi said it plans to add support for Ether (ETH), EOS, Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Litecoin (LTC) and XRP by the end of March.

 You May Also Like

Leo Jakobson, Modern Consensus editor-in-chief, is a New York-based journalist who has traveled the world writing about incentive travel. He has also covered consumer and employee engagement, small business, the East Coast side of the Internet boom and bust, and New York City crime, nightlife, and politics. Disclosure: Jakobson has put some 401k money into Grayscale Bitcoin Trust.