The Huobi crypto exchange announced today that it’s rebranding to HTX to celebrate its 10th anniversary – which led crypto folk to quickly tweet that the new name is reminiscent of fallen exchange FTX.
In the official announcement, the cryptocurrency exchange said: “’H’ stands for Huobi, ‘T’ represents TRON with a commitment to being all in TRON, and ‘X’ stands for the exchange.”
It also noted that HT represents the native token, which, as of 13 September, is up 3% in the past 24 hours, with the price trading at $2.43, ranking it at 77 by market capitalisation.
“On the other hand, X is the Roman numeral for 10, which pays tributes to HTX’s 10th anniversary,” the exchange added. “It is a new era for the platform with synergy between HTX, TRON, and Poloniex.”
As a part of this change, the exchange has updated its branding on its website, social media, and even specific product lines like HTX Earn.
A new mission for HTX
HTX describes itself as entering a new era as it celebrates its 10th anniversary. Its mission now focuses on creating a “metaverse free port”. The growth strategy it’s adopting revolves around “global expansion, thriving ecosystem, wealth effect, and security and compliance”.
As part of this, HTX plans to explore and enter new markets across the globe, “while maintaining a balanced growth”.
Before making the rebranding public, the exchange changed its social media handles. The account previously known as Huobi’s X is now labeled HTX_Global, while its primary Telegram group goes by HTX Global Official.
At the time of writing, their domain has kept the old Huobi name. But, the changes are still evident when visiting their website, which now showcases the updated HTX logo and several mentions of the rebranded name.
Justin Sun, an advisor for Huobi, will be present at this week’s Token2049 event in Singapore, where he’s scheduled to speak tomorrow, followed by a Huobi press briefing.
FTX vs HTX
The change to HTX has gained attention on social media as it seems to resemble FTX, the defunct exchange that declared bankruptcy last year.
Crypto investor and podcaster Scott Melker wrote on X (formerly Twitter): “You could choose any name in the world for your exchange… and Huobi rebrands to HTX. FTX was taken, I guess.”
As FTX’s former CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried is currently awaiting trial, there are now plans to reboot the now-collapsed exchange. Crypto exchanges Bullish and Tribe Capital have expressed their interest in this.
This isn’t the first instance of a company adopting a name that echoes FTX. Earlier in 2023, the founders of Three Arrows Capital, a crypto hedge fund that folded, declared their intention to secure $25million in funding for a new exchange, which they planned to name GTX.
As per their initial pitch, they suggested that the letter ‘G’ comes after ‘F’, hinting at the bankrupt FTX.
Huobi denies legal rumours
Recently, Huobi faced rumours suggesting that the company was nearing insolvency. These speculations gained traction after data hinted at a total value locked (TVL) outflow of $64m between 5 and 6 August. Investigations by Chinese authorities fuelled the rumours even further.
Additionally, in early August, there was talk about the arrest of some of Huobi’s leadership by Chinese police. These allegations claimed the police found transactions between the exchange and gambling platforms.
A representative from Huobi labeled these claims as “fake news”.
Previously in May 2023, Huobi Global encountered regulatory issues in Malaysia and was instructed to halt its operations by the national securities regulator.
