Cryptocurrency trade Huobi is celebrating its tenth anniversary with a controversial advertising transfer — the agency is rebranding from “Huobi” to “HTX,” echoing bankrupt trade FTX.
Huobi introduced the rebranding on Sept. 13. “H” represents the primary letter of Huobi, “T” represents Justin Solar’s blockchain undertaking Tron, and “X” represents the trade.
One other interpretation is that “HT” represents the trade’s native Huobi Token (HT), whereas “X” is the Roman numeral for 10, which pays tribute to the corporate’s tenth anniversary. The agency‘s new slogan is: “HTX, Simply Commerce It.”
Earlier than formally asserting the information, Huobi renamed its social media accounts to replicate the brand new identify. The trade’s X (previously Twitter) deal with is now HTX_Global, whereas its official Telegram group is “HTXglobalofficial.” Its web site area nonetheless displays the unique Huobi identify on the time of writing.
Huobi’s new identify shortly gathered consideration on social media, with many questioning the similarity to FTX, the now-defunct trade whose founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, is dealing with 13 expenses referring to fraud.
“What’s up with Huobi changing into HTX? I feel it’s giving me FTX vibes,” one cryptocurrency observer wrote on X.
“Is that this purported to be a joke? FTX to HTX? That’s the very first thing everybody will suppose,” one other X consumer argued, expressing confusion as to why a model would have taken such a reputation after FTX’s collapse in 2022.
Huobi is just not the primary firm to seemingly borrow part of its identify from the troubled FTX, nevertheless. In January 2023, the founders of collapsed cryptocurrency hedge fund Three Arrows Capital introduced a plan to lift $25 million for a proposed crypto trade referred to as GTX. Per its pitch deck, the identify is “as a result of G comes after F” — a play on FTX’s chapter.
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Some cryptocurrency observers additionally argued that Huobi was rebranded “after moving into authorized hassle.” It’s unclear what authorized troubles have been implied, because the trade has been denying that it’s dealing with any points. In early August, it denied experiences suggesting it was near insolvency and that Chinese language police had arrested a few of its senior executives.
Beforehand, Huobi International was additionally ordered to shut its operations in Malaysia following an enforcement motion from the nation’s securities regulator in Might 2023.
Huobi didn’t instantly reply to Cointelegraph’s request to remark.
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