Cryptocurrency change Huobi is celebrating its tenth anniversary with a controversial advertising and marketing transfer — the agency is rebranding from “Huobi” to “HTX,” echoing bankrupt change FTX.
Huobi announced the rebranding on Sept. 13. “H” represents the primary letter of Huobi, “T” represents Justin Solar’s blockchain venture Tron, and “X” represents the change.
One other interpretation is that “HT” represents the change’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 title. The change’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 title on the time of writing.
Huobi’s new title shortly gathered consideration on social media, with many questioning the similarity to FTX, the now-defunct change whose founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, is facing 13 charges relating to fraud.
“What’s up with Huobi changing into HTX? I believe it’s giving me FTX vibes,” one cryptocurrency observer wrote on X.
“Is that this imagined to be a joke? FTX to HTX? That’s the very first thing everybody will suppose,” one other X person argued, expressing confusion as to why a model would have taken such a reputation after FTX’s collapse in 2022.
Huobi will not be the primary firm to seemingly borrow part of its title from the troubled FTX, nonetheless. In January 2023, the founders of collapsed cryptocurrency hedge fund Three Arrows Capital introduced a plan to lift $25 million for a proposed crypto exchange called GTX. Per its pitch deck, the title 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 entering into authorized bother.” It’s unclear what authorized troubles had been implied, because the change has been denying that it’s dealing with any points. In early August, it denied reviews suggesting it was close to insolvency and that Chinese language police had arrested a few of its senior executives.
Beforehand, Huobi World was additionally ordered to close 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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