As part of its expansion in Latin America, Huobi is acquiring rival Bitex. This M&A strategy seeks to capitalise on the growing appeal of the region’s people to our ecosystem
Huobi acquires Bitex platform
Huobi, one of the world’s leading cryptocurrency exchange platforms (CEX) has acquired Bitex, one of its competitors. The latter originates from Latin America and was founded in 2014. It operates mainly in countries like Argentina and Chile for example.
Nos complace anunciar la adquisición de Bitex por parte de @HuobiGlobal, un exchange líder a nivel mundial. Aumentando nuestra presencia combinada en LATAM, esta alianza permitirá a nuestros usuarios operar con la seguridad, la liquidz y la estabilidad comprobadas de Huobi.
– Bitex (@bitexla) May 26, 2022
Caleb Lim, senior investment manager at Huobi, says only about half of the population of Latin America is banked, and with the acquisition of Bitex, he believes his company will reduce that inequality:
With this acquisition, Huobi Global hopes to address this growing appetite for alternative financial services through blockchain technology. We intend to add more local currencies and work with local partners to expand our ecosystem in Latin America. “
Bitex CEO Francisco Buero said that his exchange was partly founded to meet this need, expressed by the population, to protect the value of their capital. The centralised platform hopes to move to the next level following the takeover.
Latin America as a growth driver
In the search for growth, there is a growing interest in Latin America from players in our ecosystem. Although negotiations were not successful, Coinbase had planned to buy 2 TM, the number one Brazilian player.
This trend responds to a very real problem, namely inflation, which is particularly marked in this region of the world. A region that would encompass up to 10% of the total cryptocurrency activity and would have grown by 1370%, between 2019 and 2021, according to figures put forward by Huobi.
Thus, after creating Huobi Argentina in 2019, the CEX intends to continue its momentum, as confirmed by Jeffrey Ma, head of mergers and acquisitions:
Since Huobi Group first entered the Latin American market, we have experienced remarkable growth and are optimistic about our prospects for the region. We are delighted to partner with an established player like Bitex as we look to expand our presence in Latin America. “
With this move, Huobi now has a new asset, to capture new market share.
