Huobi Group and SBI Group (formerly Softbank Investment Group) have reached a strategic partnership agreement to jointly develop digital assets financial services in Asia.
The digital assets exchange will be provided by both SBI Virtual Currencies and Huobi Japan in early 2018. The move will see Huobi renew its cryptocurrency trading business with the launch of two exchanges in Japan.
The decision to launch two new exchanges in Japan by Huobi comes following Beijing’s crackdown earlier this year, which saw China’s government regulators shut down all Chinese cryptocurrency exchanges in September.
Founded in 2013, Huobi accounted for more than 60 per cent of global bitcoin trading at one point, assisted by its lack of transaction fees and margin trading, which proved attractive to China’s base of retail investors.
Huobi will become the first Chinese company to launch centralized exchange services – in partnership with SBI Group – that allow trades between crypto and fiat currencies after the September crackdown.
Incepted in 1999 as SoftBank Investment, SBI Group (Strategic Business Innovator Group) is a financial services company group based in Tokyo that is listed on the Tokyo and Osaka bourses, as well as in Hong Kong in the form of a Hong Kong Depositary Receipt (HDR). The group’s businesses and companies are held primarily at SBI Holdings,
SBI has been involved in efforts to build platforms linked to the cryptocurrency ecosystem and been developing various crypto-related business (e.g. mining, hedge fund, etc.) In October 2017, SBI Virtual Currency (SBIVC) was one of 11 enterprises authorised by Financial Services Agency (FAS), Japan’s financial regulator, to operate a digital assets exchange.
Huobi Group is not the only Chinese exchange looking abroad for opportunities. OKCoin, another Chinese exchange, is planning to launch crypto trading platforms in Japan and South Korea via local partnerships.
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