Huobi cryptocurrency exchange plans to emerge on Japanese markets by acquiring the majority stake in one of the leading government-approved crypto trading platforms in the country, the BitTrade platform. According to Huobi, the exchange plans to “aggressively scale this trading platform into the largest in Japan,” with the desire to expand globally.
Huobi cryptocurrency exchange purchased a majority stake in BitTrade, according to the Singaporean entrepreneur Eric Cheng who owns 100% of BitTrade.
“The parties intend to aggressively scale this trading platform into the largest in Japan with the potential to extend its services globally,” stated Eric Cheng.
Huobi Japan Holding Ltd., a subsidiary of the Huobi Global, a cryptocurrency exchange established in 2013 in China, recently moved its headquarters in Singapore. According to the company, its crypto exchange platform totaled trading volumes of over $1 trillion and sums up millions of users from all over the world.
“Geographically, Huobi has compliance teams in Singapore, Korea, Hong Kong, Australia, the UAE, Luxembourg, and other countries around the world,” Huobi stated.
Huobi is aggressively emerging on Japanese markets by purchasing BiTrade, an already-regulated cryptocurrency exchange in Japan
The biggest challenge for the companies specialized in crypto trading who want to enter Japanese markets is to get the approval from the Financial Services Agency (FSA).
In 2017, the FSA has approved only 16 cryptocurrency exchange platforms operating across Japan, one of them being BitTrade, a platform owned entirely by the Singaporean entrepreneur Eric Cheng since May.
“With the acquisition, Cheng, the CEO of Upper Joyful Ltd, will own the controlling stake in the two firms, the FX Trade Financial Co Ltd (FX Trade) and its affiliate company, BitTrade Co Ltd.,” Singapore Business Review reported at that moment.
Now, Huobi acquired the majority stake in BitTrade directly from Eric Cheng so that it would have direct access to Japanese markets via BitTrade.