Huobi joins crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried to set up shop in the Caribbean

Huobi Global, one of the world's largest crypto exchanges founded in China, plans to move its headquarters to the Caribbean, marking the latest migration to the region as regulators around the world crack down on the industry.

Justin Sun, who was appointed to the company's board in October, said the region's "super-friendly" crypto stance, common law systems and adoption of the English language made the countries attractive bases.

“Nowadays, one of the biggest goals we have here is to go all out to the Caribbean,” Sun said. Dominica, Panama and the Bahamas are the front runners, he added.

The migration would make Huobi the latest major crypto company to move to the Caribbean. Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX, the world's second-largest crypto exchange, moved from Hong Kong to the Bahamas last year.

Other crypto firms registered in the region include C-Trade in the British Virgin Islands and PrimeBit in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange, is registered in the Cayman Islands, while exchange Crypto.com acquired a license to operate there in August.

Huobi's move would mean encouraging dozens of employees at its headquarters in the Seychelles to move to the Caribbean. Eventually, it hopes to have up to 200 employees in the region, Sun said. The company currently has about 1,600 employees, he added.

Sun, who is also Grenada's permanent representative to the World Trade Organization, said he met Dominica's Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit last year and that Huobi would work closely with the country of 72,000 to develop its crypto infrastructure.

In October, Skerrit signed a regulation making cryptocurrencies on the Tron network, founded by Sun, legal tender in the country.

"The Caribbean . . . is a very crypto-friendly community . . . and I think right now Dominica is one of the frontrunners," Sun said. "[Skerrit] is a very technical person. He understands how crypto and the technology works."

Henri Arslanian, co-founder and managing partner of crypto hedge fund Nine Blocks Capital Management, said early moves by Caribbean nations such as the Bahamas and Bermuda to introduce regulatory regimes for digital assets have helped attract global players in the industry.

Huobi remains among the 10 largest crypto exchanges by daily trading volume, according to cryptocurrency tracker CoinMarketCap, although it slipped from its second place after China, once its largest market, banned cryptocurrency transactions last year.

Sun said he was "very optimistic" about the prospect of China softening its stance, although he had not been in contact with regulators there recently.

Despite the ban, Chainalysis, a US blockchain research group, last month ranked mainland China as the world's fourth-largest crypto market by transaction turnover.

“Chinese governance is currently in constant flux,” Sun said, adding that policies would cool “maybe after the first quarter of next year.”

Although the company named Singapore its regional base last year, Huobi hopes to expand its presence in Hong Kong, where regulators are considering legalizing retail crypto trading and Covid-related travel restrictions have been eased.

"We all know that Hong Kong has a great advantage for mainland China," Sun said, adding that its recent policy change could serve as a model for mainland China.

"Despite the recent challenges posed by Covid... many in the crypto ecosystem hope that Hong Kong can also regain its status as a crypto hub," said Nine Blocks' Arlsanian.

“It still has many advantages, such as a large talent pool, an experienced regulator and an active crypto ecosystem.”