HTX

Who HTX fits

HTX has been trading continuously since 2013, when it launched in China as Huobi, one of a handful of exchanges old enough to have operated through the 2017 boom, China’s 2017 and 2021 crypto trading bans, and the FTX collapse. Huobi relocated its operations abroad well before Beijing’s 2021 ban forced most domestic platforms out entirely, and it has run offshore since. In October 2022, Tron founder Justin Sun took what was described as an advisory and investment role in a restructuring of the company, and in September 2023 Huobi rebranded to HTX. If your priority is deep liquidity, a wide asset catalog, and every core product type (spot, margin, futures, options) under a single account, HTX still delivers on paper. But this is also an exchange whose recent history includes a direct UK sanctions designation, two hacks in two months, and a governance structure even close observers can’t fully pin down, so it fits a narrower kind of user than its size would suggest: someone outside a restricted jurisdiction who has already weighed those specific risks and decided the product breadth is worth it anyway.

It’s a poor fit for anyone who wants a clean, boring regulatory history, anyone in the US or mainland China (both blocked outright), and arguably anyone who wants real confidence about who actually controls the platform holding their funds.

Security and custody

HTX’s clean run ended badly right after its rebrand. On September 24, 2023, an attacker drained roughly 4,999 ETH (about $8 million) from an HTX hot wallet; Huobi-linked accounts publicly demanded the funds back within a week, offering a 5% “white hat” bounty. Less than two months later, on November 22, 2023, HTX was hit again, losing an initially underreported $13.6 million that was later confirmed at roughly $30 million, the same month a related project, the Heco Chain bridge, lost a further $85 million in its own exploit. HTX said it would fully compensate affected users and later promised an “epic airdrop” alongside sister exchange Poloniex (also linked to Justin Sun, and hit by its own $114 million hack days earlier that same November). Multiple Sun-affiliated platforms losing over $230 million combined in a single month is a genuinely bad security stretch, even accounting for user funds reportedly being made whole afterward.

Since then, HTX has published regular proof-of-reserves attestations claiming 1:1 backing across major assets, and there’s been no comparable breach reported since late 2023. Treat that record the way you would any exchange’s: proof-of-reserves snapshots are a point-in-time signal, not a guarantee, and HTX’s 2023 stretch is recent enough that it should weigh more heavily in your risk assessment than an old, resolved incident would elsewhere.

Deposits and withdrawals

Fiat access is heavily region-dependent and, per HTX’s own disclosures, unavailable through banking rails in a long list of countries under sanctions or facing service restrictions, including Russia, Iran, North Korea, and several others. Where available, deposits run through card purchases, bank transfers, and third-party payment partners, with P2P trading offered as an alternative on-ramp in markets without direct banking support, similar to how other offshore-first exchanges handle regional fiat gaps. Crypto deposits and withdrawals process at normal network speed once confirmations clear. Given that both the account restrictions and the blocked-country list are unusually long for a major exchange, confirm your specific country’s status directly with HTX rather than assuming access.

Fees

HTX runs a standard 30-day trailing-volume maker/taker schedule for spot and a separate, generally lower schedule for derivatives, the same shape used across most major exchanges. Holders of HTX’s own token or TRX (Tron’s native token, reflecting the Sun connection) get a further discount, reported to range roughly 5% to 25% depending on tier, comparable in mechanism to how KuCoin’s KCS or Binance’s BNB work. Base-tier spot rates sit in a broadly competitive range for the industry; as with any exchange, the posted number matters less than the tier you’ll actually land in, so check the live schedule before trading real size.

HTX’s product lineup: spot, margin, futures, and options

Spot trading covers a wide catalog, HTX’s traditional strength going back to its Huobi days. Margin trading is available on eligible pairs, and HTX Futures offers perpetual and dated contracts, though several jurisdictions, including Taiwan, mainland China, Israel, the UK, Spain, and New Zealand, restrict derivatives access specifically even where spot trading might otherwise be allowed; see CFDs vs. Futures for how leveraged derivatives work if you’re new to the category. Options trading rounds out the derivatives suite. Beyond trading, HTX offers Earn products (simple staking and structured yield), broadly similar to what other large exchanges offer, though none of these are differentiators the way the exchange’s overall breadth and long operating history are.

Regulatory footprint

This is the section where HTX’s history gets complicated, and it’s worth being direct about it. Justin Sun’s relationship to HTX is officially limited to a “global advisor” title and a seat on HTX’s Global Advisory Board, carrying no formal executive authority. Independent reporting has repeatedly described Sun as exercising effective control over the exchange regardless of title, and reports have tied the large majority of his personal wealth to an ownership stake in HTX; Sun has publicly denied owning the exchange. That gap between the official story and what outside reporting suggests is worth sitting with before trusting the platform with meaningful funds.

On the licensing side, HTX holds a Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) license in Dubai and has represented that it holds a MiCA license in Malta, which would formally extend to the whole EEA. Set against that: other disclosures describe HTX’s own terms of service folding the entire EU into an all-services ban, the same posture taken by exchanges that chose to exit EU compliance rather than pursue it. Those two pictures don’t fully reconcile, and that’s itself a sign of how unsettled HTX’s EU footprint is; verify current access in your specific EU country rather than assuming either story is the full picture.

The most serious development is recent. On May 26, 2026, the UK government sanctioned Huobi Global S.A., the entity behind HTX, under its Russia sanctions regime, one of 18 crypto-linked entities and individuals designated in that package and the first time the UK has directly sanctioned a crypto exchange. The UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office alleges HTX moved roughly $1.5 billion for Kremlin-aligned entities, reportedly through the A7 payments network, to help evade sanctions on Russia. UK persons and firms are now required to freeze related assets and cease dealings with the designated entity. This is a materially different, more serious category of regulatory action than a fine or a state-level licensing dispute, and it should be weighed accordingly against alternatives.

Customer support

HTX offers live chat support, in English, with real agents reachable quickly according to some reviewers; phone support isn’t offered. The broader reputation is poor: HTX carries a 1.4-out-of-5 Trustpilot rating and, unlike Kraken or Coinbase, hasn’t claimed its Trustpilot profile or engaged with the reviews on it. Recurring complaints include unresolved tickets, frozen accounts, and inadequate help with P2P trading disputes; the exchange’s app store ratings run noticeably higher than its Trustpilot score, suggesting routine use is fine while account-level problems are where support falls short, a familiar pattern across large offshore exchanges but a more pronounced one here than most.

Who should look elsewhere

If a clean, verifiable governance and regulatory history matters to you, HTX’s combination of an unresolved ownership question, two 2023 hacks, and a May 2026 UK sanctions designation is a heavier set of red flags than almost any other major exchange carries at once; Kraken or Coinbase are far more conservative alternatives, and the comparison tool is worth using to weigh them side by side against HTX’s actual product breadth. If you’re in the US or mainland China, this isn’t a choice at all: HTX doesn’t serve either market. And if you specifically want EU access, confirm it directly with HTX before signing up rather than trusting either the licensing claims or the ban reports on their own.