After OKEx, Crypto Exchange Huobi to Shut Down its Beijing Entity; A Turning Point?

Cryptocurrency exchange Huobi is closing the doors of its Beijing entity, which was registered by the platform in its early years. This entity is reportedly not the operating entity of Huobi Group. The entity applied for its cancelation on July 22, according to China's National Enterprise Information Disclosure System. “It is not the operating entity of Huobi Global. The entity applied for cancellation because it did not carry out any business and did not need to continue,” said Huobi in a statement about this closure. Huobi now aims to move overseas, with Singapore as the primary choice. Another crypto exchange OKEx canceled its China-based business last month after the regulators in the country amped up with their crackdowns efforts on cryptocurrency trading and mining. “Two of the biggest exchanges in the world are now fully exiting China. Just months years ago China dominated global crypto trading and mining. They have gone from a majority, to fractions of a percent today. A true turning point,” noted Charles Edwards, founder of Capriole Investments. China has shifted its focus on digital yuan as it leads the race to launch a central bank digital currency in the hopes that “their CBDC will outgrow Bitcoin and every other crypto in the future. It's a bold move, I expect they will regret it,” he added. Edwards actually expects China to give up fighting crypto in the future, which will allow them to have some influence on the platforms instead of banning it and have no influence on this global movement. Meanwhile, Bobby Lee, who sold the country’s first Bitcoin exchange, BTC China, in the aftermath of the 2017 crackdown, expects the ongoing clampdown to even lead to an outright ban on holding cryptos. “The next thing they could do, the final straw, would be something like banning cryptocurrency altogether,” Lee said in an interview. “I put it at the odds of 50-50.” But he expects that to happen once Bitcoin’s price reaches $50k or $1 million so that people won’t be allowed to hold it any longer. “China actually didn’t bother to differentiate green, renewable energy powered Bitcoin mining facilities versus the dirty coal-powered ones. So to me, that’s a sign that it wasn’t about the cleanliness of the mining, but rather is more of a higher level sort of perspective about financial stability for the country,” as the officials didn’t want the population to trade, use, or invest in an unregulated, volatile financial product.