Huobi, which was one of China’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges before the authorities shut down the platforms, is moving its business to Japan and South Korea, which are among the largest global cryptocurrency markets. Huobi, which rebranded to HuobiPro and relocated to Hong Kong, has struck a partnership with one of Japan’s largest financial institutions – SBI Group – to launch a cryptocurrency exchange in Japan and South Korea. “SBI Holdings has reached a basic agreement with Huobi Group (1.65 million accounts, maximum daily transaction volume of over CNY 30 billion (approximately JPY 510 billion), which has a track record of stably operating a major cryptocurrency exchange in China, to explore the following alliances,” the official statement released by SBI Holdings said. I wonder how long they'll stay in South Korea, considering the tightening regulation there. They may end up banning cryptocurrencies like China did.
Seems like the tightening is more regulatory than prohibitive. S. Korea seems to be pretty welcoming of certain currencies (such as ripple).
Time will tell, I guess. In Japan Huobi will also have to compete with e-commerce giant DMM Group which is planning on opening their own cryptocurrency exchange soon. This will be interesting.