Huobi Expands Operations to Japan after Purchasing BitTrade Crypto Exchange

The Huobi Group will soon roll out its services in the Japanese market after the acquisition of a licensed digital asset trading platform. Recently, the Huobi Group announced that its subsidiary, Huobi Japan Holding Ltd had reached an agreement with Eric Cheng to purchase the majority stake of the BitTrade virtual currency exchange. Eric is the sole proprietor of BitTrade.

In addition to being regulated by relevant financial oversight authorities, BitTrade is also registered with the Japanese Virtual Currency Exchange Association. Upon inquiry, the Huobi Group declined to state both the cost of the deal and the percentage of the exchange's stake they have bought. Back in June, Eric Cheng acquired the whole of FX Trade Financial, a licensed forex trading company, for a reported $50 million. Notably, BitTrade is an affiliate of the forex firm.

Regarding this acquisition, Chris Lee, the chief financial officer of the Huobi Group, said that his company intends to transform BitTrade into a reckoning force in the Japanese crypto space. Chris added that the exchange's top brass along with its government license will assist significantly in the realization of this goal.

Previously, the Huobi Group had attempted to enter the Japanese market, but its deal with SBI Holdings was aborted prematurely. The two entities had agreed that Huobi would acquire a stake in SBI's VCTRADE digital exchange. However, the Japanese financial giant abandoned the agreement, citing security risks after the infamous Coincheck hacking incident earlier this year. Apparently, SBI decided to dedicate its resources to the deployment of a formidable security mechanism.

In recent times, the Huobi Group has been expanding its reach across the Asian market. Concerning this matter, Huobi recently acquired a 60% stake in a Hong Kong-based public company in a deal worth $70 million.