Huobi launching a new fiat-to-crypto exchange

Even though cryptocurrency trading skyrocketed last two years and many new cryptocurrency exchanges have appeared one after another, the fiat-to-crypto platforms are still relatively rare. Probably the reason behind this is the increased regulatory scrutiny that comes with taking hold on this territory and in a result even among the top venues, they preferred to stay away from this space.

However, we might see this attitude changing in 2019 as the crypto winter has prolonged and the bear market is hitting cryptocurrency exchanges’ volumes hard. The process has already started as the US division of Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange Huobi announced the launching of its fiat-to-cryptocurrency exchange.

According to the press release, the new fiat-to-cryptocurrency exchange will list three major pairs from the beginning. All pairs will be tied to U.S dollar and will be against some of the most popular cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and Tether (USDT). After screening and reviewing these pairs, more pairings will be added. Huobi also plants to add more pairs in the future if there will be demand from customers side.

One of the largest crypto exchange is expanding

Huobi is the third largest crypto exchange by -hours trading volume and it got even bigger last month as they have announced a mutual rebranding with its exclusive strategic partner in the US – HBUS. As per the agreement, Huobi brand got a license from HBUS and the partner has rebranded its retail trading platform HBUS.com to Huobi.com. As for the Huobi Group itself, its crypto platform continues operating under the same name but has changed its domain.
HBUS marketplace was rebranded as Huobi, its trading platform was migrated to Huobi.com and is now open to the customers in the US.

Rebranding and launching the new fiat-to-cryptocurrency exchange is not the only news coming from the Singapore-based exchange. The company is also planning to launch its own stablecoin in the first half of the 2019 and is now preparing the infrastructure for it. Huobi already has all-in-one stablecoin wrapper named HUSD which supports four stablecoins that are regulated in the US: True USD (TUSD), USD Coin (USDC), Paxos Standard (PAX),  and Gemini Dollar (GUSD).

While Huobi is working on the infrastructure to launch the stablecoin, the Nevada trust company will be providing custody for Huobi’s fiat-crypto venue and at the same time looking to facilitate settlement and clearing of OTC block trades. The company – Prime Trust is already famous in the Blockchain sphere due to its back-office solutions. It has started with providing Bitcoin storage service in July and soon added support for other cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum and ERC-20 tokens. Such services are getting more and more popular and Prime trust is not the only company providing operational cryptocurrency custodianship and infrastructure across the wider investment management industry. Some of the leading cryptocurrency exchanges have also launched similar services for investors, the companies include Coinbase, SIX group, which is the owner of SIX Swiss exchange and Japanese financial holdings company Nomura.