Huobi Japan Raises $4.6 Million From Tokyo-Listed Financial Services Firm

Huobi Japan has received almost 500 million yen ($4.6 million) in investment from a Tokyo-listed company involved in leasing, real estate, insurance brokerage and mergers and acquisitions.

According to releases from the company and the investor, Financial Products Group (FPG) purchased 499,968,000 yen worth of shares from the Japanese subsidiary of Singapore-incorporated Huobi Asset Investments on Oct. 25.

FPG said it bought into the company because of its prospects, as Huobi Japan will be developing solutions related to virtual currencies and payments, and the two may plan to collaborate on projects related to tokenization of the securities market, given FPG’s expertise in finance and real estate.

The exact use of funds was not detailed, though the companies said the new capital will be deployed in financing Huobi Japan’s expansion in the country.

It is not clear from the announcement what percentage of ownership the Japanese investment company will receive, though the disclosure did say that Huobi Japan’s paid-up capital was $5.7 million, while the company’s website puts total capital, including reserves, at $11 million as of February 2019.

FPG has not yet responded to CoinDesk’s enquiry seeking for clarification.

Huobi was founded in 2013 in Beijing. Its exchange, Huobi Global, is ranked as the 15th largest exchange in the world by reported volume, according to CoinMarketCap data. The company also has the Huobi Token, which is ranked 17the in terms of market capitalization.

Huobi Japan was founded in 2016. In 2018, the company acquired BitTrade, a fully-licensed crypto exchange in Japan. Bittrade’s name was changed to Huobi Japan, and trading began in January 2019 in six virtual currencies–XRP, BTC, ETH, BCH, LTC and MONA.

Reuters reported in April that Huobi Japan was raided by the Financial Services Agency. The regulator was checking to see whether adequate compliance measures were in place following the change in management, according to the story.

Huobi image via Shutterstock