Huobi Group, on Tuesday, announced its expansion into the brokerage business, targeting institutional investors in the digital asset industry.
Dubbed Huobi Brokerage, the platform was unveiled at the World Economic Forum in Davos. The new business will be a part of Huobi’s Global Institutional Business (GIB), which the group established last November to control its institution-oriented businesses.
Per the company, Huobi’s institutional business has grown 400 percent to 1,700 institutional clients following the set up of GIB.
Commenting on the institutional demand for crypto assets, Ciara Sun, vice president of global business at Huobi Group, said: “There’s an industry-wide consensus that institutional investors and HNWIs will be the major contributors of growth for the crypto economy in 2020 and beyond, but barriers like low Liquidity and a lack of asset enhancement products are stalling widespread adoption.”
“By introducing institutional-grade products and liquidity solutions that cater to the needs of institutions and eliminate existing barriers, we’re aiming to help drive the entire crypto economy forward.”
Providing best deals to institutions
Like any other brokerage platform, Huobi Brokerage will route its clients' orders to the Exchange offering the best price for the trade. The platform is using “advanced trading algorithms and smart order routing (SOR)” and will provide clients access to high-quality liquidity pools, competitive prices, a regulated fiat channel, and an all-in-one solution for OTC trading.
The company, however, did not reveal the exchanges to which it will route its orders.
Huobi has launched the brokerage platform to almost all jurisdictions in which its exchange is operating except China. For now, it supports high-volume block trades for BTC, USDT, HUSD, PAX, TUSD, and USDC. However, it has plans to add ETH, EOS, BCH, LTC, and XRP within the first quarter of this year.
“2019 brought the first wave of institutional interest but 2020 is when we expect to see the industry mature with growing demand. As we enter the next phase of crypto, Huobi is taking an active role in setting new standards for institutional and retail clients alike,” Sun added.
