TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Chinese cryptocurrency exchange Huobi is moving fast to find retail clients on various continents around the world as it moves to shut down all China-based accounts in the wake of Beijing’s blanket ban on cryptocurrencies.
To ease the pain of being shut out of its home market, Huobi is pursuing retail clients in Ukraine, Russia, Southeast Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East as well as institutional investors in London, the Cayman Islands, Switzerland, and other financial hubs, according to a Caixin Global report.
“These are areas with high crypto adoption, high amount of user education with crypto uses, and high trading volumes,” Jeff Mei, director of global strategy at Huobi Group, told Caixin.
The exchange will soon move to the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar, having already gotten the green light from the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission to set up shop in the crypto haven, according to Bloomberg.
Beijing outlawed all crypto-based transactions in September, adding that any Chinese nationals who work at offshore exchanges will also be investigated, per Caixin. Huobi founders and investors voted unanimously that month to move China’s largest exchange out of China before the government regulators could close in, per Bloomberg.