Huobi launched in Beijing in 2013 and was, for a stretch, the largest exchange in China. The 2017 and 2021 Chinese crackdowns pushed it offshore, first to Singapore and then to a Seychelles registration, and in late 2022 founder Leon Li sold his controlling stake to About Capital, an investment firm associated with TRON founder Justin Sun, who took an advisory role. On September 13, 2023, its tenth anniversary, Huobi Global rebranded to HTX: the H for Huobi, the T for TRON, the X for exchange. It lists 500-plus spot assets, runs futures and margin, and is deepest in USDT and TRON-ecosystem tokens.
The rebrand year was also the hack year. In September 2023 about $8 million left an HTX hot wallet; in November 2023 another $30 million was taken, and a bridge HTX had built for its HECO chain lost more than $85 million in a linked exploit. HTX suspended deposits and withdrawals, promised to cover the losses, and saw roughly $258 million in net outflows in the weeks after. It reopened, and no customer loss from those events was left uncovered as far as we can verify, but they are part of the record.
The United States is not part of the customer base. HTX's user agreement lists the U.S. among the jurisdictions prohibited from using all of its services, U.S. IDs fail verification, and there is no U.S. affiliate. Anytime Capital takes that customer, and everyone else: an American company that serves customers worldwide, with a storefront on Piedmont Road in Atlanta, an office in One Biscayne Tower in Miami, a phone number that reaches a person, and every rail you are likely to use, including cash and same-day wire.