Crypto exchange Huobi is prohibiting customers in 10 countries or regions from trading derivatives, including mainland China and retail investors in the U.K., according to an updated User Agreement.
The list came more than a month after the exchange said it would ban futures contracts and some leveraged investment products in “a few specified countries and regions,” as CoinDesk first reported.
The exchange has already barred people in another 11 countries from crypto transactions and provision of related services, according to the new agreement. These countries or regions include the U.S., Canada, Japan, Iran, North Korea and Crimea.
The full list includes the following:
Anyone from mainland China, Taiwan, Israel, Iraq, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Ecuador, Kyrgyzstan, Sevastopol and the U.K. (in the U.K., retail investors only) is prohibited from using the derivatives trading services provided by Huobi’s website.
Use of the transaction of digital assets and provision of related services by persons located in the U.S., Canada, Hong Kong, Japan, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela and Crimea is prohibited.
The company declined to comment on the user agreement.
Huobi is the latest exchange to scale back trading services amid an intensifying crackdown on crypto trading on exchanges or over-the-counter (OTC) desks in China.
The Chinese government’s notices cited money laundering and excessive speculation in the crypto market as two of the reasons for this wave of crackdowns.
The People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank, summoned major commercial banks to reiterate a longstanding ban on dealings with crypto trading platforms on June 21, and singled out OTC trading as one of the services that most needed to be supervised and regulated.
The first official warning this year against crypto trading from China was issued by three financial industry associations on May 18. Another notice by the State Council of China, which is one of the highest central government agencies, escalated the crackdown and triggered Huobi to reduce its trading and mining services.
More telecom fraudsters are turning to crypto to launder their proceeds, according to the Chinese police, while leveraged trading is one of the most risky investments in digital assets. Small price drops could prompt large-scale liquidations, which lead to further decreases in price, Jason Wu, CEO of crypto lending platform DeFiner, said in a previous interview.
