Huobi Global is a leading cryptocurrency exchange founded by Leon Li and Du Jun in 2013.
It has become a popular exchange for more than 10 million active customers due to its advanced trading platform and wide range of cryptocurrencies supported —over 350 digital assets.
The exchange has several features that make it stand out from its competitors, including a native blockchain called Huobi Eco Chain; a utility token dubbed Huobi Token (HT), and a dollar-pegged stablecoin, called HUSD.
The company also allows users the ability to earn interest through staking.
The company had its headquarters in Beijing, China, but due to the regulatory settings in mainland China, it had to be relocated to Gibraltar.
Currently, Huobi has offices across several Asian countries and jurisdictions, such as Hong Kong, South Korea, and Japan.
Is Binance Exchange Limited To Expert Traders?
Compared to its competitors, we can find in Huobi a decent balance between a user-friendly interface and also providing experienced traders with all the necessary tools to maximize their strategies.
As for beginners, the platform has a Learn section where they can learn how to open an account, navigate the Huobi trading interface, and various guides on cryptocurrency investment strategies.
That said, while Huobi comes off as more appropriate for professional traders, newcomers can easily get a grasp of the exchange works.
Pros & Cons Of Huobi
| Pros | Cons |
| Several cryptocurrencies available | Not regulated |
| Wide range of crypto-related products | Not available in the US |
| 24/7 live chat support | Not user-friendly |
Our Take On Huobi
Huobi is a powerful platform for trading a broad spectrum of crypto-assets and profiting from several trading features.
I would recommend Huobi for professional traders who already have an understanding of several financial products, such as futures and perpetual contracts and leverage trading.
Huobi does stand out from its competitors, mostly due to its large basket of investment products for advanced users and its powerful trading interface.
Beginners, however, might want to try a more user-friendly exchange like Coinbase or Kraken.
Banking At Huobi
Huobi allows users to fund their accounts through at least 60 payment methods, including cryptocurrencies, wire transfers, credit/debit cards, PayPal, WeChat, AdvCash, and more.
There are 57 fiat currencies we can choose to top up our accounts, such as USD, EUR, or GBP.
Huobi supports +500 cryptocurrencies, including stablecoins, decentralized finance (DeFi) tokens, and certain NFT tokens such as APENFT.
Let’s look at some of the most popular coins on the exchange:
- Bitcoin (BTC)
- Ethereum (ETH)
- Cardano (ADA)
- Litecoin (LTC)
- Polkadot (DOT)
- Huobi Token (HT)
- Huobi USD (HUSD)
- Dogecoin (DOGE)
- Shiba Inu (SHIB)
- Monero (XMR)
Huobi Fees
Huobi has a 0.2% base fee.
You’re eligible for a fee discount if you hold a certain amount of HT —the more you hold HT, the fewer fees you pay.
Like the majority of crypto exchanges, Huobi uses a tiered maker-taker system divided into Normal and Professional Traders.
Market makers are essentially the ones who provide liquidity to the market so the takers execute instant buy or sell orders.
Takers usually pay higher fees since they are pulling liquidity off the exchange, and this is not any different with Huobi.
Makers pay a 0.036% starting fee while takers pay 0.046%.
These rates are usually lower compared to the exchange’s competitors.
Is Houbi Safe?
Huobi relies on several security protocols of the highest quality and provides multiple mechanisms to keep users’ funds safe.
At least 98% of funds within the exchange are stored in cold storage —psychical and offline wallets.
There are other security features we can use to protect our accounts, such as:
- Two-Factor Authentication (2FA): By using Google Authenticator we can enable 2FA —a 6-digit password that adds an extra layer of security to your account. Even if your account ever gets compromised by a hacker, they would still need to enter the 2FA in order to access it.
- Bitcoin Offline Reserve: If the exchange is ever compromised and funds are stolen, Huobi has a 20,000 BTC offline insurance fund held to help reimburse affected users.
- Self-initiated Account Freeze: If you suspect malicious activity on your account, you can freeze your account and then contact support about the matter.
Trading Options
Huobi offers a vast amount of crypto-related products, starting with spot and margin trading with a 5x leverage, and a significantly smaller selection of cryptocurrencies.
This is not the case with derivatives, as we can choose up to 100x leverage.
Besides futures and perpetual contracts, Huobi supports another type of derivative: perpetual swaps —similar to futures in the sense that it allows users to buy the value of an underlying asset but without expiration and settlement date.
You can basically hold your position in the market as long as you want.
For traders who don’t have the time to be checking in on the market, Huobi provides a programmable trading bot to automatically execute trades on behalf of the user.
Besides its trading features, Huobi supports crypto loans so we can earn interest by borrowing assets, and staking up to six cryptocurrencies, including Ziliqa (ZIL), Aelf (ELF), Terra (LUNA), (Solana) SOL, Persistence (XPRT) and Casper (CSPR).
Other interesting features of the exchange are:
- Primepool: users lock their Huobi Tokens to support the development of projects on Huobi Global and participate in the event’s Annual Percentage Yield (APY).
- Huobi Wallet: a secure and non-custodial wallet with support for cross-chain transactions and DeFi products. It can be downloaded via App Store (iOS) or Play Store (Android).
- Huobi Dual Investment: an investment product suitable for professional traders. It allows users to speculate on the price of one base currency and an alternate currency in a single trade, for example BTC(ETH)-USDT, or USDT-BTC(ETH),
Registration Process
Registering an account on Huboi is straightforward. An email address and a password are required to set up an account.
Users are not required to verify their identities before accessing the platform, but this comes with limitations regarding withdrawals and trading.
Huobi offers two types of Know Your Customers (KYC) for individual and institutional accounts. For individual accounts, users need to submit one of the following government-issued documents:
- ID Card
- Passport
- Drivers license
Huobi is not available to US citizens, therefore all of the exchange’s services are restricted in this jurisdiction.
The company had a strategic partnership called Huobi.US but it was shut down in 2019 amid regulatory concerns.
Huobi Site Experience
Huobi has two trading interfaces: its original interface and one provided by TradingView. Both are very smooth and the navigation speed is decent.
TradingView provides all the necessary tools and features needed to start placing our bets in the market, such as indicators, trend lines, and setting the time frame for a certain asset.
There are four types of trades we can execute: limit, market, stop-limit, and trigger order.
When we are ready to place our order, we simply hit Buy or Sell, as shown in the image below, which is ETH/USDT.
One particular feature of the exchange is that the higher your trading volume and the bigger your crypto holdings (especially for HT), the more Huobi Experience Points (EXP) you collect, which can make you eligible for a VIP account tier —depending on your level of experience, of course.
There are four tiers to which you can upgrade your account, each one has different benefits:
- Advanced: minimum 4,000 EXP
- Insider: minimum 7,000 EXP
- Premier: minimum 30,000 EXP
- Ambassador: 150,000 EXP
- Partner: Minimum 500,000 EXP
Huobi App Experience
Huobi has a mobile version downloadable for both Android and iOS devices.
Once we’re in, the dashboard might seem confusing and difficult to navigate for beginners. However, the app has a series of pop-ups with valuable information to guide us through the whole process, which is a very nice feature of the exchange.
The performance is rather powerful and the navigation speed is quite fast.
The app doesn’t only show current market prices and data, but also a news section to see what’s going on in the cryptocurrency world. We can also find a particular cryptocurrency on the Search bar.
As for security and privacy, the app allows Face ID for both Android and iOS users, as well as Google Authenticator, to add another layer of security to your account.
These features can be found in Settings. Here, we can also change the currency we want to use, the language, and the trading interface, and manage our payment methods.
The app provides you with access to several services, such as contacting the Huobi team to give feedback about the product, joining the Huobi Community, and Huobi Learn, which is the education section we mentioned previously.
We can also find various tools, including placing alerts for spot or derivatives products or adding tickers of your preferred currencies.
If you haven’t verified your account, you can do so in the app by either choosing Basic Verification or Advanced Verification —both options will grant you different benefits.
Huobi Geographic Restrictions
Huobi is available in the majority of countries across the globe.
The problem is that the exchange it’s not regulated by financial regulatory bodies in these countries, which can present a risk for users or certain jurisdictions.
However, Huobi is looking to comply with regulatory laws worldwide but has only managed to receive approval from the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission (GFSC).
Let’s look at the list of restricted countries:
- Mainland China
- The United States
- Canada
- Japan
- Singapore
- Iran
- North Korea
- Sudan
- Syria
- Venezuela
Huobi Customer Support
Huobi offers a Support Center page with a basic FAQ and also provides 24/7 support via email and live chat.
Like most exchanges, it does not provide phone support.
Huobi reviews on Trustpilot are mostly negative, with users complaining about poor customer service, accounts getting frozen deliberately and problems with withdrawals and the verification process.
However, several customers have positively rated the exchange due to its wide range of crypto products and trading features.