Huobi joins crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried to set up shop in the Caribbean

Huobi Global, one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges founded in China, plans to move its headquarters to the Caribbean, marking the latest migration to the region as regulators worldwide crack down on the industry.

Justin Sun, who was appointed to the company’s board in October, said the region’s “super-friendly” crypto attitude, common legal systems and English-language adoption made the countries attractive bases.

“These days, one of the biggest goals we have here is to go all the way to the Caribbean,” Sun said. Dominica, Panama and the Bahamas were the frontrunners, he added.

The migration would make Huobi the latest major crypto company to move to the Caribbean. Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX, the world’s second largest crypto exchange, moved to the Bahamas from Hong Kong last year.

Other crypto firms registered in the region include C-Trade in the British Virgin Islands and PrimeBit in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, is registered in the Cayman Islands, while exchange Crypto.com acquired a license to operate there in August.

Huobi’s shift would involve encouraging dozens of employees at its Seychelles headquarters to relocate to the Caribbean. Eventually, it hopes to have up to 200 employees for the region, Sun said. The company currently has around 1,600 employees, he added.

Sun, who is also Grenada’s permanent representative to the World Trade Organization, said he had met Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit last year and that Huobi would work closely with the country of 72,000 to develop its crypto infrastructure.

In October, Skerrit signed an ordinance to make cryptocurrencies on the Tron network, founded by Sun, legal tender in the country.

“The Caribbean . . . is a very crypto-friendly community . . . and I think right now, Dominica is one of the frontrunners,” Sun said.[Skerrit] is a very technically savvy person. He understands how crypto and the technology work.”

Henri Arslanian, co-founder and managing partner of crypto hedge fund Nine Blocks Capital Management, said early moves by Caribbean states such as the Bahamas and Bermuda to roll out regulatory regimes for digital assets helped attract global players to the industry.

Huobi remains among the top 10 crypto exchanges by daily trading volume, according to cryptocurrency tracker CoinMarketCap, although it has fallen from its No. 2 spot after China, once its largest market, banned cryptocurrency transactions last year.

Sun said he was “very bullish” on the prospect of China softening its stance, although he had not been in recent contact with regulators there.

Despite the ban, Chainalysis, an American blockchain research group, ranked mainland China as the world’s fourth largest crypto market by transaction volume last month.

“The Chinese government leadership is undergoing ongoing changes right now,” Sun said, adding that policy would cool down “maybe after Q1 next year”.

Although the company named Singapore its regional base last year, Huobi hopes to expand its presence in Hong Kong, where regulators are exploring the legalization of crypto trading and Covid-related travel curbs have eased.

“We all know that Hong Kong has a big advantage for mainland China,” Sun said, adding that the recent political shift could serve as a model for mainland China.

“Despite the recent Covid challenges . . . many in the crypto ecosystem hope that Hong Kong can also regain its crypto hub status,” Nine Blocks’ Arlsanian said.

“It still has many advantages, such as a deep talent pool, an experienced regulator and an active crypto ecosystem.”