Huobi Global’s Data Suggests Exchange Earned $483 Million in Trading Commissions

Singapore-based crypto exchange owner, Huobi Global (which is in the process of rebranding to HBG.com) has reportedly earned $483 million from trading commissions.

Huobi Reportedly Earned More From Commissions Than Binance

During 2018, Huobi’s global crypto exchange managed to generate 545.2 billion Korean won (appr. $483.9 million) from commissions, according to a commodity and digital currency investment specialist named Hwaseong Jae Kyung. Notably, Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange in terms of trading volume, only earned $463.9 million from commissions while OKEx, another leading exchange, generated $239.4 million.

Data shared with SludgeFeed by the managers of Huobi’s derivatives market, Huobi DM (which recently recorded over $20 billion in trading volume) appears to confirm the exchange operator’s estimated revenue from commissions. At present, Huobi DM offers short and long position contracts for bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), and EOS.

Laying Off Worst-Performing Staff Members

Huobi’s management recently announced it will support the Tron Foundation backed BitTorrent Token (BTT) airdrop for all TRX token holders – which has been scheduled for next month. Huobi’s native token (HT) is currently trading at around $1.05, according to CryptoCompare data.

In late December 2018, Huobi announced it was laying off some of its staff members due to the extended bear market. Huobi’s management said they were planning to “optimize staffing” by cutting the exchange’s worst-performing employees. A Huobi representative told the South China Morning Post (SCMP) last year that the company was still looking to recruit more staff for its core businesses and other planned initiatives.

Earlier in May 2018, Huobi had announced the launch of a $1 billion fund for China-based blockchain startups. The funds are reportedly being used to help startups with technical and strategic business development. The initiative was launched through Huobi Labs, which serves as an incubator that is owned by Huobi Global.

Huobi Group Expands To US, Indonesia, Russia, Philippines 

After allocating a billion dollars for developments in China, Huobi revealed (in August 2018) it had partnered with five different companies based in the US, Indonesia, Philippines, Russia, and Taiwan. According to Huobi, the the partnerships will focus on helping the firms use Huobi Cloud, which is a platform for building and deploying cryptoasset exchanges.

Huobi Group has also announced that it will be launching a crypto exchange dedicated to EOS during the Q1 2019. This will reportedly be carried out through Huobi Pool, the firm’s crypto mining subsidiary.

Huobi Pool provides a platform that allows miners to withdraw their earnings, and then deposit and trade them on Huobi’s exchange or Huobi’s over-the-counter (OTC) markets.