page_title: Huobi
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Huobi / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Leon Li - Huobi
context_page_description: Huobi is a Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange. Founded in China, the company now has offices in Hong Kong, Korea, Japan and the United States. In August 2018 it became a publicly listed Hong Kong company.
  Following a 2017 ban on Bitcoin exchanges by the Chinese government, Huobi stopped Bitcoin withdrawals. Huobi China continues to operate as a blockchain consulting and research platform.
  As of March 2018, Huobi processed around US $1 billion in trades daily.
context_section_description: Huobi was founded in 2013 by Leon Li (Chinese: 李林; pinyin: Lǐ Lín). An alumnus of Tsinghua University, Li was a computer engineer at Oracle before founding Huobi.
  On May 15, 2013, the Huobi Group (火币集团) acquired the huobi.com domain. On August 1, Huobi launched a simulation trading platform, and on September 1 the Bitcoin trading platform launched.  
  In November 2013, Huobi received angel investments from Dai Zhikang and Zhen Fund. In 2014, Huobi raised a $10 million venture capital investment from Sequoia Capital. In August 2014, Huobi acquired Bitcoin  wallet provider Quick Wallet.
  In December 2013, trading volume exceeded 30 billion yuan, making Huobi China's largest digital asset trading platform at the time. In June 2016, its total transaction volume reached 1 trillion RMB, and in November 2016 1.7 trillion yuan, accounting for more than 60% of the global bitcoin exchange market. On December 22, 2016, its daily transaction volume surpassed 200 billion yuan.
  In September 2017, China banned bitcoin exchanges and ICOs. In response, Huobi adjusted its business and organizational structure to promote global expansion. In October 2017, Huobi officially expanded into Korea with a new headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, and opened trading in March 2018.
  In November 2017, it launched operations in Singapore with total volume in the first month exceeding 30 billion RMB. In December 2017, it launched an office in Tokyo, Japan and announced that it would set up two crypto exchanges in Japan in early 2018, through a partnership with Japanese financial group SBI Group. In March 2018, Huobi announced that it will be launching in the United States.
  In August 2018, in a reverse takeover, Huobi acquired a 74% stake in Hong Kong electronics manufacturer Pantronics Holdings, becoming listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
caption: 李林 Leon Li - Huobi