Huobi Global’s Trading Volume Doubled Last Year, Despite Bear Market

The trading volume of Huobi Global, Huobi Group’s flagship cryptocurrency exchange, has reportedly seen its trading volume double last year, despite the cryptocurrency bear market that saw most crypto prices drop by over 80%.

According to a message shared by the group’s founder and CEO Leon Li, the company’s success wasn’t just based of of Huobi Global’s increasing trading volume – which by itself shows an influx of traders in the market – but also included staff increase from 400 to 1,300, and 15 new offices throughout the world.

While Huobi’s headcount has increased, there are reports suggesting the firm is set to layoff staff over the crypto ecosystem’s bear market. Among its achievements, Li noted its OTC trading platform has become one of the most “traded OTC platforms in the world.” The message reads:

The exchange side of our business saw more activity than ever before in 2018. Huobi Global, our flagship exchange platform, experienced a 100% increase in trading volume over our 2017 numbers and Huobi OTC become one of the most traded OTC platforms in the world.

The company has also recently launched a digital asset derivatives trading platform, Huobi DM (Derivatives Market), which has in its first month seen a trading volume of over $12 billion, and of over $20 billion in total.

As CryptoGlobe covered, the exchange has also recently revealed it’s launching fiat-to-crypto trading pairs in its Huobi US strategic partner, formerly known as HBUS. Its business in other markets – including the United States, Japan, and South Korea – has reportedly also been booming, according to the message.

Looking Forward

Per Li, the Huobi community can expect the exchange to focus on its Huobi global platform and on the “exchange side” of its business this year, while it’ll still be strengthening its “efforts to promote the Huobi brand in the major markets of Japan, South Korea, and the United States.”

Notably this could mean Huobi is set to, to a certain extent, neglect other sides of its business, which include Huobi Cloud, a platform used by 120 crypto exchanges, and Huobi Pool, which Li touts is “the most influential Distributed Proof of Stake (DPoS) mining pool around.”