HTX

HTX is the same exchange as Huobi. It launched spot trading in September 2013 under the Huobi name and, at its tenth anniversary in September 2023, changed its English name to HTX. HTX says the rebrand left platform operations, account structures and asset ownership unchanged, so a Huobi account is an HTX account.

It is a centralized exchange: HTX holds customers' assets and runs the order books. Its own figures are more than 59 million registered users, more than 10 million who have traded, over 700 cryptoassets available for spot trading and $38 trillion in cumulative volume. Products include spot and margin trading, coin-margined and USDT-margined futures, copy trading, trading bots, Earn products, peer-to-peer fiat trading, crypto loans and a TradFi zone launched in 2026.

HTX has its own token, also called HTX, governed through HTX DAO, which the exchange says was set up in January 2024. Paying fees in HTX gives a 25% discount, and HTX balances count at 1.5 times their market value toward fee tiers.

HTX does not publish its owners or a corporate structure. Its User Agreement, last updated in September 2026, defines the "HTX Operators" as all parties that run the platform, including legal persons, decentralized autonomous organizations, unincorporated organizations and teams, and says the operators may change as the business changes. In a dispute, the agreement leaves it to the user to work out which entity they contracted with.

The clearest public identification comes from the UK regulator. The FCA's lawsuit names Huobi Global S.A., a company incorporated in Panama, as first defendant, alongside persons unknown who own, control or operate htx.com. Justin Sun, the founder of Tron, is widely described in the press as HTX's owner; Cointelegraph has called him its de facto owner. He is not named as owner in any HTX document we found.

The About page lists contact addresses at htx-inc.com for listings, events and media, but no registered office.

HTX's licensing page lists two items: a No Objection Certificate from Pakistan's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority, which HTX describes as making it one of the first platforms eligible for licensing there, and "payment and remittance services" in South America, with no country, entity or licence number. A No Objection Certificate is a step toward a licence, not a licence. HTX does not appear in ESMA's register of MiCA-authorised crypto-asset service providers.

The terms match that picture. Disputes are governed by the laws of Pakistan and resolved by a single arbitrator at the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre, after a 30-day internal resolution period.

The UK FCA is taking HTX to court. It filed a claim in the High Court's Chancery Division on 21 October 2025 against Huobi Global S.A. and four classes of persons unknown, alleging that HTX communicated illegal financial promotions to UK consumers, and is seeking an injunction. The court allowed the FCA to serve the claim abroad by alternative means on 4 February 2026, and further orders followed through 14 October 2026. In its 10 February 2026 announcement the FCA said HTX had kept promoting on its website and on TikTok, X, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube after warnings, operated an opaque structure that hides its owners, and ignored repeated attempts to engage; it said HTX had restricted new UK registrations but existing UK users could still log in. HTX's terms now list the UK as restricted. Our guide to what happens if an exchange goes bankrupt explains why the absence of a supervised legal entity matters for customers.

HTX's User Agreement bars users from Mainland China, the United States, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Myanmar, Russia, the occupied regions of Ukraine and all member states of the European Union from all services. Users in Taiwan, Israel, Iraq, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Ecuador, Kyrgyzstan and New Zealand may not trade derivatives. The list can change.

The EU-wide exclusion is the main change from older descriptions of HTX: European residents should not open or keep accounts there. US residents are excluded too; our guide to which exchanges Americans can use lists options that accept them. Using a VPN to get around the restriction breaches the terms and puts the account at risk of closure.

HTX's entry Prime 0 tier pays 0.2% maker and 0.2% taker on spot trades, falling to 0.15% when fees are paid in the HTX token. USDT-margined futures start at 0.02% maker and 0.06% taker, and coin-margined futures at 0.02% and 0.05%. Tiers rise with 30-day spot or futures volume, total assets or HTX holdings, and the top tiers pay negative maker fees on coin-margined futures.

Withdrawal fees vary by coin and network and are shown before you confirm; HTX does not publish them in a single table we could find, so check the fee on the withdrawal screen, especially for TRX and XRP, which people often move between exchanges.

On 14 July 2026 we measured the all-in cost of a $10,000 market buy of bitcoin on HTX at 0.2062%, and 0.2165% at $100,000, with 92.2 BTC of depth within 0.1% of the best ask. The depth was among the best we recorded; the cost was not, because of the 0.2% entry-tier fee. How that compares across venues is set out in how HTX compares with other crypto exchanges.

HTX has published proof of reserves since December 2022 and says it does so monthly. The 1 October 2026 snapshot shows reserve ratios of 104% for BTC (20,003 BTC against 19,288 owed to users), 102% for ETH, 104% for USDT, 108% for TRX, 105% for XRP, 102% for DOGE, 109% for SOL and 103% for the HTX token. Users can check their own balance against a Merkle tree using a downloadable tool. HTX says verification is by "a third-party audit agency" but does not name it.

Two things in the same report deserve attention. First, the buffers are thin: most assets sit only a few percent above what users are owed. Second, a large share is not in HTX's own wallets. Of 110,550 ETH in reserve, 80,799 ETH is in "custodial wallets", and about $753 million of the roughly $939 million USDT reserve is too; HTX says these are held by third-party custodians and that anyone wishing to verify them must contact those custodians directly. HTX does not name them. The About page says HTX integrated Fireblocks Off Exchange in May 2024. Our guide on how to spot a fake proof of reserves explains why reserves that cannot be checked on-chain weaken the proof.

HTX has been hacked twice. About $8 million was taken from a hot wallet in September 2023, and on 22 November 2023 three hot wallets were drained on the same day as an $86.6 million exploit of the HECO Chain bridge; HTX's own loss was first put at $13.6 million and later at about $30 million. Justin Sun said HTX would fully compensate hot-wallet losses. We found no report setting out what was paid.

HTX says it keeps a portion of assets in cold wallets and runs a bug bounty paying up to $100,000 for the most severe findings. It publishes no insurance policy and no audited financial statements.

HTX requires identity verification for its services, and the terms allow it to restrict or close an account if verification fails, if the user is from a restricted jurisdiction, if it sees heightened legal or compliance risk, or if the account has not been logged into for an uninterrupted year. Dormant balances are therefore not safe to leave indefinitely.

To withdraw, close futures and margin positions, redeem Earn products, and send each asset to a wallet you control on a network it supports. HTX publishes a deposit and withdrawal status page listing coins whose transfers are paused, which is the first place to look when a withdrawal will not go through. Our walkthrough on moving crypto off an exchange covers test transfers and address checks.

Support runs through HTX's help center and in-app customer service. HTX's Media Verifier lets you check whether a phone number, social account or other contact really belongs to HTX; it says its staff will never ask for passwords, verification codes or transfers to an address. Security researchers can report vulnerabilities through HackenProof or by email to [email protected].

Dated milestones from HTX's own pages and public records:

• September 2013: launches spot trading as Huobi.
• December 2022: begins publishing proof of reserves.
• September 2023: renamed HTX; about $8 million taken from a hot wallet within the month.
• 22 November 2023: hot-wallet losses of about $30 million alongside the HECO bridge exploit.
• January 2024: HTX DAO set up; May 2024: Fireblocks Off Exchange integrated.
• 2025: Pakistan PVARA No Objection Certificate.
• 21 October 2025: FCA files High Court claim; announced publicly in February 2026.
• 2026: TradFi zone launched; restricted list now covers all EU member states.