Cryptocurrency exchange Huobi has obtained funding of over 1.6 Billion USD for their Chinese Blockchain Incubator: Huobi Labs. Huobi Labs is also referred to as the “Xiong’An Global Blockchain Innovation Fund” which the Chinese government of Hangzhou city has helped fund by granting Huobi Labs $400 million USD which is approximately 30% of the 1.6 billion dollar capital in the fund. Huobi Labs will invest in innovative new blockchain projects and will be hosted in the new Blockchain Industrial Park in Hangzhou, which will be the center of the blockchain incubator for startups.
Huobi Labs has also partnered with Tianya (a popular Chinese online forum) to build a “Global Cultural and Creative Blockchain Lab” in the beautiful island province of Hainan. The Hainan project will evolve in to an international free trade zone by 2020 in the hopes of allowing foreign firms greater economic freedom in China. Huobi plans to launch 5 initiatives in Hainan Province in 2018 which include:
1.Huobi China will relocate its China’s headquarter to Hainan Island, to be settled in Hainan Ecological Software Park;
2.Partner with top blockchain startups to build 10 Global Blockchain+Labs;
3.Cooperate with world-class universities to set up a blockchain research institute;
4.Build a 40,000-square-meter blockchain incubator;
5.Launch a one billion-dollar blockchain fund.
Chinese venture capitalist Xu Xiaoping, founder of Zhenfund, will act as the funds advisor, while the legendary bitcoin miner and angel investor Li Xiaolai will act as the manager of the fund. Li Xiaolai is very well known in China as the first large scale Bitcoin miner inside China and owner of Yunbi exchange which evolved in to the Big.One exchange.
The Huobi Group is a leading player in the international blockchain asset financial sector, serving over 130 million users from over 130 countries. Huobi has expanded globally with subsidaries and headquarters in Beijing China, Singapore, San Francisco USA, Tokyo Japan, Seoul South Korea, and is expecting to open up a headquarters in the 2nd half of 2018 in London England. The headquarters in Beijing operates the Huobi Wallet which provides users with safe and simple digital asset management services. In Hong Kong, Huobi Capital is an investment fund that focuses on the blockchain industry. Huobi also operates the Huobi Mining Pools global network..
Despite the ICO and exchange ban in China, the Chinese government has been doing all that they can to take the lead in global blockchain technology, and this fund is a prime example of Chinese interest with Chinese President Xi Jiping taking a personal role in planning, deploying and promotion a national-level strategy for the growth of blockchain in China. These recent developments signal a new blockchain era inside of China, though it is uncertain and highly unlikely that the Chinese government will allow its citizens to ever freely trade the local currency (Chinese Yuan) for cryptocurrencies again. With one door closed, another door may have opened.