Huobi decides to freeze US accounts as users call country ‘first in regulation, last in innovation’

The cryptocurrency market has always functioned with the idea of making it a legitimate mode of payment, and that includes the regulations and rules around it. Several countries have yet to accept these digital assets, and the United States has been one of the regions regressing in terms of crypto developments.

In the latest twist of events, Huobi Global, one of the most popular cryptocurrency exchanges on the planet, announced that they would be freezing all assets in the accounts held by United States citizens. The platform announced:

“In line with the laws and regulations of the United States with respect to crypto assets, our User Agreement expressly prohibits users in the United States from using our platform. For that reason, the accounts of US users have been gradually disabled to prevent any further trading or transferring. We will freeze all US user accounts from 13 November 2019 (GMT+8) onwards. We are sorry for any inconvenience resulting therefrom.”

The organization has asked its users to return borrowed funds in margin trading and then proceed to withdraw their balances. Huobi will process refunds according to purchased price and tokens used. This rule will only apply for Bitcoin/Tether trading pairs.

Another option presented to the users is to convert all their assets, including, USDT, BTC, LTC, BCH, ETH, ETC, into the BTC/USDT trading pair to initiate a refund.

Huobi is not the first exchange to pull out of the US market as it follows in the footsteps of Binance, with the Changpeng Zhao led cryptocurrency exchange creating a new subsidiary called Binance US. Huobi’s announcement has caught the eyes of many proponents of the field with Luke Martin, a famous analyst tweeting:

“Countries that are commonly banned from crypto exchanges:

Iran

North Korea

Sudan

Syria

Cuba

and….the United States of America.

I hope this trend eventually changes & doesn’t turn out like online poker: forcing americans to unregulated offshore sites.”

The issues in the United States has been growing densely despite some positive comments made by the Securities and Exchange Commission [SEC]. Many native users have also expressed their frustration at the legal ramifications after crackdowns by bodies such as the SEC and the CFTC. Some have even given the country the tagline of “First in regulation, last in the innovation.”

The latest announcement by Huobi is expected to make a dent in the US’s plans of overtaking China concerning blockchain technology and the cryptocurrency industry. The Red Dragon has taken considerable strides in the field, with significant honchos like Binance and Tron launching products in the country and its population of more than a billion.

Disclaimer: The presented information is subjected to market conditions and may include the very own opinion of the author. Please do your ‘very own’ market research before making any investment in cryptocurrencies. Neither the writer nor the publication (TronWeekly.com) holds any responsibility for your financial loss.