As a cryptocurrency trader and investor, one of the most important decisions you’ll be making almost on a continuous basis is which exchange to use or switch to.
And here at Crypto Academy, we do our best to help you make informed and independent decisions like this.
And also to give you a leg up in your DYOR (do your own research process).
In this Huobi Global exchange review post, we will be taking a look at
- What is Huobi
- A brief background of Huobi exchange
- The pros and cons of using Huobi,
- Huobi Features, Products, and Services
- An evaluation of the trading and withdrawal fees structure
- How to create a free Huobi trading account
- How to verify your Huobi exchange account
- Whether the exchange is legit and safe
So without much ado, let’s get started.
What is Huobi Global?
Huobi Global is one of the oldest and largest cryptocurrency exchange founded by Leon Li in September 2013.
884 trading pairs. 346 listed (and counting) making it one of the biggest
The exchange has its presence in over 130 countries and over.
The cryptocurrency exchange has its headquarters in Singapore. Founded in 2013, Huobi rose to become the leading exchange by trading volume.
Unfortunately, the exchange dropped several positions down from being a world-class cryptocurrency exchange after the Chinese government banned digital asset platforms in late 2017.
The Team Behind Huobi Global
Huobi’s team is committed to providing crypto investors with world class digital asset finance services.
The team comprises Leon li, who is the chairman and CEO, Robin Zhu as the Chief Operating Officer, Simon Wu as Chief Security Officer and Roy Zhu as the Chief Technology Officer.
We checked the bios of each team member and found they have extensive experience working with leading financial and technology organizations.
For example Leon Li and Robin Zhu are former computer engineers at Oracle, Simon previously worked at Didi Chuxing and Roy is a former senior technical lead at Alibaba.
Huobi Global Review: Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Huobi is fully regulated with compliance offices in the US, Korea, Hong Kong, Thailand, Australia, Japan and Singapore.
- Exchange supports withdrawal of both cryptocurrencies and fiat.
- Has backing from established ventur capitalist firms : ZhenFund, Sequoia Capital and Dai Zhikang.
- Easy to use user interface
- Dedicated 24/7 email support
- Welcome bonus of upto $170
- IOS and Android mobile versions are available
- 0 deposit fees
- Supports a diverse number of digital assets
- Available in 130 countries
Cons:
- Mutliple verification requirements
- Demands formal withdrawal request to get your assets
- Maximum withdrawal limits if not verified
Huobi Global Exchange Products and services (Spots trading, Margin Trading, Trading 6. Bot, OTC, Futures trading)
Let’s briefly have a look at the available products on Huobi Global Exchange. Which are:
- Spot Trading
- Derivatives
You will also find other services on the exchange essential to your trading journey. These are:
- Huobi Earnings – This feature enables traders to manage and make profits from idle digital assets on the platforms.
- C2C Lending – C2C is for users with an idle token on their huobi balances to lend and earn interest from margin trading borrowers.
- Huobi OTC and P2P Trading Market – A peer to peer trading feature for Huobi users to exchange digital assets.
Spot Trading
When you spot trade, you’r buying/selling cryptocurrencies directly from/to other traders for instant delivery on a specified date. The cryptocurrencies are fueled from your account, while your preferred coin is deposited into your account.
Huobi allows you to place spot trades through order matching, filling and settlements. All of the three processes are autonomous and are processed by Huobi’s blockchain engine.
Here is how to place a selling or buying order on Huobi’s spot trading dashboard.
On the far left of the dashboard is the order book. Here you will find a list of all the buy and sell orders entered by traders on the exchange. Buys are in green, sells are in red. You will notice a green, bold figure between the sell and buy orders which is the price of the last settlement. On our screenshot that price is $38,955.88.
The best thing about Huobi is it provides a wide array of trading pairs. Infact, most of it’s trading pair selection targets Asian projects . Huobi’s coins are either paired to the USDT, BTC, ETH, Huobi Token (HT), and the Huobi USD-backed stablecoin (HUSD).
Derivatives
Huobi Global’s derivatives trading market supports four features . These are Options, Futures, Coin and USDT Margined Swaps.
Options – Huobi became the first digital asset platform to launch USDT-quoted options. Users on Huobi are allowed to trade options of any assets just by holding USDT.
Futures – Futures are paired in USD with a corresponding digital asset. On Huobi, the digital asset could be BTC, ETH, EOS, LTC,XRP,BSV,ETC,LINK,DOT,ADA or FIL.
BTC/ETH/EOS/LTC/XRP/BCH/TRX/BSV/ETC/LINK/DOT/ADA/FIL Futures are available on Huobi Futures. You will choose leverage depending on whether your futures are weekly, bi-weekly, bi-quarterly or quarterly.
Huobi Token (HT)
HT is the global ecological token for the Huobi Exchange. The decentralized token was built on top of Ethereum and has limited supply of 500 M. Issuance of the token is controlled by Huobi Group.
The exchange guarentuees holders of the token the following benefits:
- Invitation and revates
- OTC legal services
- Sub token rewards
- Fees discounts
- Access to the ecological trading zone
To find out more about Huobi’s ecological token (HT), read the Huobi Token Whitepaper.
Huobi Exchange Fees (Trading and Withdrawal Fees Structure) | Can One Withdraw Directly to a Bank Account
To understand Huobi’s trading fees, I found it essential for the newbie trader to understand the two different market players and how they affect exchange fees.
The basic currency or asset trade has a market marker and a market taker.
Market Maker
The Market marker is someone who will buy or sell at the market’s best current bid. The current last price influences the maker’s buying or selling price.
On most occasions, a market marker might not buy or sell during extreme volatility. Then we have market takers.
Market Taker
The taker could be a freelance worker who gets his/her payment through cryptocurrency. It could also be an employer who’s paying employees through cryptocurrencies.
Both of them are seeking an immediate market that has high liquidity. Therefore, instead of waiting for the best bid, the trader trades within a tight bid/ask spread. The market maker usually creates the bid/ask spread.
Both of these market players are essential for crypto markets to function appropriately. Additionally, their relationship is also symbiotic.
A market maker adds liquidity to the blockchain’s order book. The market taker removes liquidity from the order book.
Huobi charges the same percentage fees on both market makers and market takers. This fee is 0.2%. The chart below represents Huobi’s deposit and withdrawal fees for the top 15 cryptocurrencies.
The table below does not have a column for deposit fees. Mainly because Huobi charges no fees for deposits.
| Cryptocurrency | Withdrawal Fees | |
| 1 | Bitcoin (BTC) | 0.0005 BTC |
| 2 | Ethereum (ETH) | 0.005 ETH |
| 3 | Ripple (XRP) | 0.1 XRP |
| 4 | EOS | 0.1 EOS |
| 5 | Litecoin (LTC) | 0.001 LTC |
| 6 | Bitcoin Cash(BCH) | 0.0001 BCH |
| 7 | Tether (USDT) | 5.0 USDT |
| 8 | Stellar Lumens (XML) | 0.01 XLM |
| 9 | Tron (TRX) | 1.0 TRX |
| 10 | Bitcoin SV (BSV) | 0.01 BSV |
| 11 | Monero (XMR) | 0.01 XMR |
| 12 | DASH (DASH) | 0.002 DASH |
| 13 | NEO | 0.0 NEO |
| 14 | Ethereum Classic (ETC) | 0.003 ETC |
| 15 | NEM | 4.0 XEM |
Huobi Global Trading Fees
The Huobi exchange fees website page is pretty worth your look if you are interested in learning more about the charges.
Withdrawing your Funds from Huobi | Does Huobi Support Bank Withdrawals?
Yes. Huobi supports bank withdrawals. But you should note the following about Huobi’s withdrawal feature.
- Multi ID verifications are compulsory to withdraw substantial amounts of money from the exchange. The verifications include requirements for a driver’s license and an up-to-date selfie.
- Huobi support team approves all withdrawals. As a result, you need to request withdrawal access from Huobi’s support. This seems like a con to me since It’s like seeking permission from bank administrators so they can approve you to use their ATM.
- Failure to submit to Huobi’s verification requirements will translate to extremely low daily withdrawal limits. Low withdrawal limits will result in trapping your digital assets within an exchange for days. And due to volatility, you could end up suffering heavy losses.
How to Create a Huobi Exchange Account
Huobi has a beautiful user interface that is simple to use for beginners. The landing page has a sign-up button to get you started by typing your email address/phone number. On top of the email address bar are a 24-hour trading volume figure and the number of supported digital assets.
Enter your Email/Phone Number
You will be redirected to a registration form once you enter your email address/phone number. The registration form looks like this.
Create a Password
The form requires you to create a password and enter your nationality.
If you were referred to Huobi by someone, click the “Do you have an invitation code?” button and proceed to enter the invitation code.
Sign UP
Now Hit the Sign-UP button, after which you will have to verify your email by entering a verification code sent to your email.
The resulting user interface or trading dashboard after verification looks like this:
There are tabs on the left for buying crypto, viewing markets, spot trading, derivatives and a finance navigation button. On your right, there is the order book, navigation button for balances and a download button for installing the IOS/Android versions of Huobi.
The exchange also has a welcome bonus. Presently, the welcome bonus is up to $170. You will have to complete several verification steps to get the bonus. Just click the get $170 navigation button and you will be directed to this page.
Click get started and you will be directed to the following verification tasks. The tasks have a signup bonus after completion. However, part of the bonuses requires you to attain a specific trading volume to qualify.
How to Get Verified on Huobi Exchange?
Importantly, fill in your full names and upload your ID to get verified.
Here is the ID verification form.
Note the ID could be a driver’s license, ID card or passport. The name and nationality on your Huobi account must match exactly with your ID. Also, remember to include middle names.
Supported formats include PNG and JPG. The platform advises newbies against uploading photocopies of their IDs or uploading scanned versions. This is because all the information must be clear. Wait until 24 hours to get your account verified.
Is Huobi Global Legit?
As a cryptocurrency trader, always ask yourself if the platform I am choosing safe? Are my funds safe? Well, Huobi Global is a safe and secure digital asset platform that you can trust. Here is why:
During press time and on the 24-hour trading chart (CoinmarketCap), Huobi Global is the 2nd largest digital currency exchange by trading volume.
The volume sits at $6,247,173,117. Furthermore, you should know the platform has an exchange score of 9.1.
What is an exchange score? CoinmarketCap ranks digital asset platforms according to source and volume of web traffic, trading volume, average liquidity, and legitimacy of the volume. Then weighs these factors on a scale of 0 – 10 and awards each platform a score. Binance leads with an exchange score of 9.9, followed by Huobi and then Coinbase Pro with 8.8.
The following services associated with Huobi will also help you vouch for its legitimacy. Huobi positions itself as a bridge between the world and blockchain technology.
Therefore, besides being a cryptocurrency trading platform, the exchange has its blockchain ecosystem. Furthermore, there is also Huobi Labs. A platform for incubating blockchain-based projects.
Count in Huobi Mining Pool which runs a mining pool, Huobi Capital – a fund for investing in blockchain projects, HADAX or Huobi Autonomous Digital Asset Exchange which is the decentralized wing of the platform for listing tokens.
The blockchain exchange also operates the Huobi Academy – an institution that focuses on researching and building cutting-edge blockchain technologies.
Huobi also runs its USD-backed stablecoin – the HUSD. In addition to the Huobi Token or HT which it promotes as a blockchain utility token.
Final Thoughts About Huobi Global
Huobi is a simple and straightforward trading platform. Furthermore, there is also a native app for both IOS and android users.
Huobi’s informative blog section provides blockchain and trading tutorials, press releases, reports and a course called blockchain 101.
The platform also has an excellent customer support team. Better yet, the platform is reliable, safe, and adapts the latest security protocols such as cold storage and multi-layer verification.
Tell us what you think about the digital currency platform in the comment section. Also, recommend platforms that you would love us to review.
Also Read: Coinbase Review – What are the Pros and Cons of Coinbase?