The cryptocurrency exchanges Binance and OKEx, which hold leading positions in the cryptocurrency exchange ranking, ended up behind the Huobi crypto exchange in commission fee volumes for 2018. According to the Korean portal Sporbiz, the Huobi cryptocurrency exchange earned $483 million in commissions in 2018, while the Binance and OKEx exchanges earned $462 million and $292 million respectively. And this despite the fact that Binance is the leading exchange by trading volume, while OKEx ranks second. Huobi, with an average daily turnover of $300 million, is in this context only the ninth largest cryptocurrency exchange.

However, despite apparently more successful business operations than its nearest competitors, under current conditions Huobi prefers to take a cautious approach to spending. "We don't know how long the bear market will last, so there remains a possibility that we will have to fight for survival. We plan ahead and spend money carefully," said Huobi CEO Livio Weng.

At the end of November, the company launched the derivatives trading platform Huobi DM. At the time, Huobi global institutional team chief legal counsel Josh Goodbody stated that the new venue would be a significant phenomenon in the cryptocurrency industry, since it brings together many diverse services for trading digital assets and derivatives. On January 17, the company reported that in less than 2 months of Huobi DM's existence, the volume of trades on it exceeded $20 billion.

It is worth noting, however, that in a December study by the Blockchain Transparency Institute, Huobi was named one of the main participants in "wash" trading among cryptocurrency exchanges. According to analysts, only 26% of the trading volume on Huobi comes from trades by real traders.