Huobi (HT)

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Overview

What is Huobi Token?

Huobi Token (HT) is a cryptocurrency created for users of the Huobi exchange, which later adopted the name HTX. It launched as an Ethereum-based token in 2018. At first, its main purpose was to give exchange users benefits such as lower trading fees. The token also became part of Huobi’s reward programs and, for a time, its blockchain ecosystem. (prnewswire.com)

The names HT and HTX now refer to different tokens. In 2024, the exchange introduced HTX DAO’s token, called HTX, and moved several benefits from HT to the new asset. The original HT remains an identifiable Ethereum token and has listings outside the HTX exchange. Understanding that change is central to understanding HT today: its history explains its original purpose, while the move to HTX explains its narrower role on the platform. (square.htx.com)

History & Team

From an exchange to a token

Huobi began in 2013. Leon Li founded the exchange with Du Jun, who has also been described by Huobi as a co-founder. The company introduced HT in January 2018, when exchange-issued tokens were becoming a way to connect customer rewards with digital assets that users could hold and transfer. (prnewswire.com)

HT’s launch was tied to Huobi’s Point Cards, prepaid credits for exchange service charges. The company planned to distribute 300 million HT over 15 days to users who bought those cards. This gave the token an immediate link to exchange activity: people could receive HT through a service package and then use it for platform benefits or trade it. (prnewswire.com)

Ownership and the HTX transition

In October 2022, Huobi announced that its controlling shareholder had sold its stake to a buyout vehicle managed by About Capital Management. Justin Sun later served on the exchange’s global advisory board and announced its 2023 rebrand from Huobi to HTX. That rebrand changed the exchange’s name; the separate token transition came in 2024. (prnewswire.com)

HTX opened a service for converting HT into the new HTX token on January 22, 2024. It ended that service on January 20, 2025. These dates mark the shift from HT as the exchange’s benefit token toward HTX as the asset used for newer platform benefits and HTX DAO activities. (square.htx.com)

Technology & How It Works

An Ethereum-based token

HT was issued under Ethereum’s ERC-20 standard. ERC-20 gives tokens a common set of functions for transfers, balances and use with compatible applications. HT can therefore be held in an Ethereum wallet and transferred through the Ethereum network. Its Ethereum contract is 0x6f259637dcd74c767781e37bc6133cd6a68aa161. Ethereum transfers require ETH to pay network fees. (prnewswire.com)

The blockchain records who holds the token and how it moves between addresses. Exchange benefits work differently: the platform defines which assets qualify for a discount or program. HT’s move to HTX shows how an exchange can change those account-level benefits while an existing token continues to be recorded on Ethereum. (ethereum.org)

The former HECO connection

HT also had a role on Huobi ECO Chain, or HECO. That network used HT for transaction fees and supported applications built for its blockchain. HECO was scheduled to retire on January 15, 2025, bringing that part of HT’s ecosystem history to a close. The original ERC-20 token remains associated with Ethereum. (htx.com)

Tokenomics & Utility

Supply and distribution

Huobi set HT’s original maximum supply at 500 million tokens. Its 2018 launch plan assigned 300 million, or 60% of that amount, to distribution through the Point Card program. A maximum supply describes the number that could originally exist; it does not describe how many tokens remain after later burns. (prnewswire.com)

A burn removes tokens from circulation. Huobi changed its HT burn plan over time. In a 2023 operations report, HTX said it allocated 20% of its revenue to quarterly HT burns and published figures for tokens removed. Those reports belong to HT’s earlier economic model. HTX DAO’s later buyback-and-burn program concerns the newer HTX token. (htx.com)

How the benefits changed

HT’s best-known use was reducing fees for Huobi exchange users. It was also used in selected membership, rewards and token-access programs. In January 2024, HTX ended HT-based fee deductions and began transferring several related benefits to HTX. These included fee deductions, parts of its membership system and a feature for converting small account balances. (prnewswire.com)

HTX DAO uses its own token for governance. Keeping the two names separate makes the economic model easier to follow: HT is the original Huobi Token, while HTX is the later DAO token that inherited specified exchange benefits. (square.htx.com)

Ecosystem & Use Cases

Exchange rewards and community programs

HT grew around a trading platform rather than around a stand-alone application. A holder’s original reasons to use it were largely tied to their Huobi account: paying less in fees, meeting requirements for certain programs and taking part in selected platform events. For frequent users, a fee benefit could make the token useful without requiring a separate blockchain activity. (prnewswire.com)

The exchange’s broader services—including trading, lending and token launches—formed the setting for those benefits. Owning HT did not make every exchange service a direct use of HT; each program had its own rules. As the platform changed, the uses attached specifically to the original token changed with it. (square.htx.com)

Use beyond the exchange

Because HT is an ERC-20 asset, people can transfer it between compatible Ethereum addresses. It has also been listed by other trading platforms, allowing it to circulate beyond accounts on the exchange that created it. These uses differ from its former loyalty benefits: they concern holding or transferring the token itself. (etherscan.io)

Advantages & Challenges

What made the model useful

HT joined a familiar idea—customer rewards—to a transferable digital token. Rather than keeping all benefits inside a conventional points account, Huobi issued an asset users could hold in their own Ethereum wallets. The ERC-20 format also made HT compatible with established wallet tools. Published burn reports gave users a way to follow an important part of its historical supply model. (prnewswire.com)

The effect of changing platform priorities

The same close link to Huobi shaped HT’s main challenge. Its exchange benefits depended on decisions made by the platform. Once HTX transferred those benefits to HTX DAO’s token, the original asset no longer served the same purpose in the exchange’s reward system. HECO’s retirement also ended a former network use for HT. Today, its place in the ecosystem is best understood through both its continuing Ethereum existence and those completed platform changes. (square.htx.com)

Where to Buy & Wallets

Trading platforms

HT is available on Poloniex and Gate, both of which provide an HT/USDT spot market. HTX ended spot trading for its HT pairs in January 2024 as it introduced the HTX token. The exchange’s HT-to-HTX conversion service ended in January 2025. (poloniex.com)

Holding HT

MetaMask can hold HT on Ethereum as an ERC-20 token. A holder can import HT using its Ethereum contract address if the balance does not appear automatically. Wallets that support Ethereum ERC-20 tokens provide the same basic ability to receive and send it. For an Ethereum transfer, the sending wallet uses ETH for the network fee. The HT ticker and contract identify the original token; HTX DAO’s token is a separate asset. (support.metamask.io)

Regulatory & Compliance

Exchange access and legal standing

Rules for the exchange are distinct from the technical ability to hold an Ethereum token. HTX’s platform agreement excludes users in the United States from its services. In Hong Kong, the Securities and Futures Commission records that a licence application for Huobi HK was submitted and then withdrawn in February 2024. Malaysia’s Securities Commission ordered Huobi Global to stop operating in the country in May 2023 because it lacked digital-asset-exchange registration. (htx.com)

In the United Kingdom, the Financial Conduct Authority announced legal proceedings against HTX in February 2026 concerning the promotion of cryptoasset services to UK consumers. Together, these examples show why the availability of an exchange service depends on the rules and actions of each jurisdiction, even though HT can still be identified as an Ethereum token. (fca.org.uk)

Islamic finance considerations

HT’s published design establishes its supply and historical platform uses, but does not establish a token-wide Sharia-compliant status. Islamic finance assessments consider the activity connected to an asset, including interest (riba), gambling-like conduct (maysir) and excessive uncertainty (gharar). An assessment of HT would therefore need to consider the particular way it is held or used, as well as any exchange product involved. The token’s former fee-discount role and the exchange’s lending or derivatives services are different activities for that purpose. (prnewswire.com)

Future Outlook

HT’s place after the migration

HT’s history offers a clear example of how an exchange token can change over time. It began as part of a prepaid-service and rewards program, gained a role in a related blockchain network, and then saw its main exchange benefits move to a successor token. The published HTX transition set an end date for the conversion service, while external listings and Ethereum wallets continued to identify the original HT asset. (prnewswire.com)

Future developments in HTX DAO concern its HTX token and governance model. For HT, the lasting educational value lies in understanding its original design, the supply changes documented during its exchange years, and the distinction between a token’s life on a blockchain and the benefits a platform chooses to attach to it. (htxdao.com)

Summary

Huobi Token (HT) began in 2018 as an Ethereum-based exchange token built around fee discounts and customer rewards. Huobi later became HTX, moved key benefits to the separate HTX DAO token, and ended its HT conversion service in 2025. HT remains the original token, with a history that shows how exchange rewards, token supply decisions and platform changes can shape a cryptocurrency’s role. (prnewswire.com)