HTX

HTX began as Huobi in 2013, moved to Seychelles after exiting mainland China in 2021, and rebranded in September 2023, with H for Huobi and T for TRON, as Justin Sun became global advisor.

In November 2023 HTX lost about $30 million from a hot wallet and a further $87 million through the linked HECO bridge; reserves covered all losses, and HECO was shut down in January 2025.

On February 2, 2024 HTX DAO launched in Singapore, establishing that holding HTX confers governance, and began quarterly buybacks and burns that have retired close to 10% of supply.

In Q1 2025 HTX listed TRUMP early and offered 20% APR on USDD, drawing 180,000 registrations in a single day; it closed the year with $3.3 trillion in volume and 55 million users, but in October the UK FCA sued over unlawful promotions.

On March 23, 2026 HTX DAO added staking, and on April 21 it opened the Genesis Hackathon in Hong Kong with a 10 million USDT ecosystem fund, betting on a develop-incubate-invest-list pipeline to hold developers.

A Dutch court investigation also linked HTX-hosted wallets to a laundering shell exchange, and its compliance record plus Sun's concentrated influence remain the biggest discount on HTX's institutional story.

HTX DAO continues quarterly buybacks and burns funded by 50% of platform revenue: the Q2 burn of 7.47 trillion tokens (about $13.6 million) was completed on July 15, and the Q3 burn of 9.39 trillion tokens (about $15.48 million) on October 15, bringing cumulative burned and donated tokens to 127.17 trillion.

Since April 2026, HTX has been the exchange's sole fee-deduction token, with staking yields of up to about 10% annually. First-half trading volume reached nearly $900 billion, with net inflows ranking first among global CEXs in April; HTX received a no-objection letter from Pakistan's PVARA and has reported proof-of-reserves above 100% for 46 consecutive months.

In the first half of 2026 HTX recorded close to $900 billion of spot turnover and ranked first among centralised exchanges for net capital inflows in April. A CoinDesk report that month put its spot share at 3.79% and derivatives at 1.98%, with spot share up 0.88 percentage points in a single month, the third-fastest growth globally.

From April 1 HTX became the platform's only token for trading fee discounts. HTX DAO burned 10.83 trillion tokens worth about $19.22 million in the first quarter, bringing cumulative burns and donations to 110.32 trillion, more than 11% of total supply, for annualised deflation of about 5.5%; a second burn of roughly $13.6 million followed on July 15, with the third scheduled for October 15. The TradFi segment traded $1.5 billion in the first half, approaching $6 billion cumulatively. The exchange has published Merkle-tree proof of reserves for 46 consecutive months, received a no-objection letter from Pakistan's PVARA and aligned with Dubai's VARA framework.

Future strategy and roadmap: HTX is making global asset access its next main line: the TradFi zone puts US equities, ETFs and Pre-IPO names in one account and drew close to $6 billion of cumulative volume in Q3, aimed at traditional funds that lack a compliant entry point rather than capital, which is why Dubai's preliminary VARA approval, the Pakistan VASP filing and the Kyrgyzstan licence are one strategy seen from three sides. Value capture runs on two tracks: half of platform revenue funds quarterly buybacks and burns, 110.32 trillion tokens burned or staked so far, over 11% of supply at roughly 5.5% annual deflation, and since April HTX is the only fee-deduction token, turning trading frequency into demand. That makes it look like a broker rather than an exchange, at the cost of dependence on market conditions and fee wars.

Justin Sun (Sun Yuchen), Global Advisor, holds a history degree from Peking University and a master's in East Asian Studies from the University of Pennsylvania, founded TRON in 2017 and serves as CEO of BitTorrent, took control of Huobi in October 2022 through a fund under About Capital and rebranded it as HTX in 2023.

Leon Li (Li Lin), Founder (departed), holds a bachelor's degree from Tongji University and a master's in automation from Tsinghua University, was an engineer at Oracle, founded Huobi in May 2013 and served as its CEO for years, stepped down as CEO of Huobi Tech in December 2021, sold his stake in October 2022 and founded the family office Avenir Group.

Molly Zheng, Head of HTX MO Centre and spokesperson, came up through brand communications and community engagement, has long spoken publicly for the platform, presented as an HTX DAO ambassador at the Global Web3 Dev Con in February 2026 and handles DAO governance communications and ecosystem partnerships.

HTX charges 0.2000% for both maker and taker on spot at Prime 0, down to 0.1000% at Prime 3 and 0.0126% maker with 0.0218% taker at Prime 11 across twelve tiers.

HTX takes 25% off spot fees paid in HTX tokens, cutting Prime 0 to 0.15000% and the Prime 11 maker rate to 0.00945%, while USDT-margined perpetual futures charge 0.0200% maker and 0.0600% taker at Prime 0.

HTX holds a Lithuania virtual asset service provider registration for exchange and custodial wallet operation, a 2018 Gibraltar distributed ledger technology licence, and a 2022 British Virgin Islands virtual asset derivatives trading platform licence for perpetual futures.