Huobi Exchange Will Suspend All China Based Accounts Later This Year

One of the major cryptocurrency exchanges, Huobi Global, that serves mainland China customers, announced it will suspend all China-based user accounts later this year.

According to an announcement, Huobi has already discontinued account registration for new users in mainland China, since Friday, after the People’s Bank of China released toughened measures in cracking down crypto trading activities. 

Huobi’s announcement stated:

“Huobi Global will gradually retire existing Mainland China user accounts by 24:00 (UTC+8) on Dec 31, 2021, and ensure the safety of users’ assets. We will inform users of the specific arrangements and details through official announcements, e-mails, text messages, etc.”

According to China’s latest crackdown order, it will now treat all crypto-related transactions as illegal, including services that let Chinese users exchange fiat currencies to crypto assets. 

Huobi is one of the first major crypto exchange that has reacted to the new ban.

Huobi’s native token HT, sunk 15% within the hour after the exchange made public the news, extending the loss to more than 27% over the past 24 hours. At the time of writing HT is trading at $7.24.

Other Exchanges

Binance, announced the suspend of new mainland China user registration through Chinese mobile phone numbers, based on user registration process.

While Huobi and Binance no longer allow new sign-ups from mainland China, both platforms are reportedly still accepting new registrations from Hong Kong users.

Unlike the above-mentioned exchanges, OKEx, another major crypto exchange in China, is still accepting new registrations from mainland China numbers and Hong Kong, perhaps because, just like Binance, it does not ask users to specify their country at sign up.