Huobi applies for license in Hong Kong; FTX Japan will start withdrawals on February 21; New OpenSea competitor Blur has generated over $460 million in NFT volume in the past 7 days.
Huobi applies for license in Hong Kong
Cryptocurrency exchanges must have certain licenses to operate in countries. From time to time, news that stock exchanges apply for licenses also finds its place in the press. Finally, Justin Sun, the name behind Tron, made an announcement about Huobi. Huobi has applied for a license to trade crypto in Hong Kong.
Huobi gearing up for Hong Kong
Justin Sun, the founder of Tron and also the consultant of Houbi Global, made an announcement on his Twitter account saying ‘Big news’. According to the announcement, Huobi Global has applied for a crypto trading license in Hong Kong. This can also be read as an exchange’s commitment to continue to operate in a legal and regulated manner.
With the new license, Huobi will also be able to expand its services and offerings to its customers in Hong Kong. Thus, the stock market will appear in front of users with a wider crypto trading and investment option. According to Sun, this is important news for investors looking for a reliable platform to invest in or store cryptocurrencies.
Alongside this license application, Sun announced that Huobi will operate in Hong Kong under the name Huobi Hong Kong. As such, the exchange will comply with local regulations. It will also offer its clients a number of trading pairs.
FTX Japan will start withdrawals on February 21
FTX Japan, the Japanese branch of bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, has announced that it will restart withdrawals from February 21. According to the statement made by FTX Japan, withdrawals will continue through the web platform called Liquid Japan. The company had acquired Liquid in 2022.
Customers who have money on the exchange will need to have their balances confirmed in the first place. The company additionally pointed out that users who do not have any accounts with Liquid Japan must first open an account. Otherwise, the withdrawal will not be possible.
FTX Japan has announced that it is pausing cryptocurrency and fiat withdrawals after cryptocurrency exchange FTX and its sister company Alameda Research suffered a shocking collapse in November 2022. Although the country’s local regulator initially asked the company to suspend all operations in December 2022, FTX Japan managed to delay this date until March 2023.
It was also stated that the platform plans to announce that it has restarted its other services.
New OpenSea competitor Blur has generated over $460 million in NFT volume in the past 7 days.
In addition to the massive growth it has achieved in the past two months, Blur has also managed to double its NFT trading volume.
In addition, looking at the data shared by on-chain data analyst DappRadar, it is seen that Blur has hosted more than $460 million in NFT trade in the last 7 days.
Considering that OpenSea made a transaction of 107 million dollars in the same period, it seems that OpenSea is intimidating a new competitor.
According to CryptoSlam data, Ethereum NFT trading volume has been growing by over 150 percent for the last 2 weeks on a weekly basis. Of course, among the reasons for this rise is the platform reward mechanism that we are used to from LooksRare.
Blur has a protocol that offers certain rewards to its users for buying and selling NFT. Naturally, a large part of this volume consists of transactions between users to earn these rewards. Another name for it is WashTrading.
Although such transactions are not liked in the sector, there is a detection of these transactions and the emergence of pure transactions may take a little longer. However, the increase in volume in the sector is an important fact.