Huobi’s new name HTX raises community eyebrows
Cryptocurrency exchange Huobi is celebrating its 10th anniversary with a controversial marketing move — the firm is rebranding from “Huobi” to “HTX,” echoing the name of the bankrupt exchange FTX.
Huobi officially announced its rebranding on Sept. 13, renaming the company to the new global brand, HTX. The new naming stands for the first letters of Huobi, Justin Sun’s blockchain project Tron and “X,” which symbolizes the exchange.
Another interpretation of the HTX name may also include “HT,” which stands for Huobi’s native token Huobi (HT). X may be interpreted as the Roman numeral for 10, which pays tributes to the company’s 10th anniversary. The new slogan of the firm is: “HTX, Just Trade It.”
Before officially announcing the news, Huobi renamed its social media accounts to reflect the new name. Huobi’s X account (formerly Twitter) is now named HTX_Global, while its official Telegram group is named HTX Global Official. Huobi’s domain still reflects the original Huobi name at the time of writing.
The new name of Huobi has quickly triggered some attention on social media. Many have questioned whether the new name has anything to do with FTX, the now-defunct exchange whose founder Sam Bankman-Fried is now facing a total of 13 charges relating to fraud.
“What’s up with Huobi becoming HTX? I think it’s giving me FTX vibes,” one cryptocurrency observer wrote on X.
“Is this supposed to be a joke? FTX to HTX? That’s the first thing everyone will think,” another X user argued, expressing confusion why a brand would have taken such a name after FTX’s collapse in 2022.
Huobi is not the first company to borrow a part of its name from the troubled FTX though. In January 2023, the founders of the collapsed cryptocurrency hedge fund, Three Arrows Capital, or 3AC, announced a plan to raise $25 million for a proposed crypto exchange called GTX. Per their pitch deck, “because G comes after F,” pun intended with the bankrupt crypto exchange FTX.
Related: Elon Musk to rebrand Twitter to X, but Crypto Twitter has other ideas
Some cryptocurrency observers also argued that Huobi was renamed to HTX “after getting into legal trouble.” It appears to be unclear what legal troubles were implied as the exchange has been denying any issues recently. Huobi specifically denied reports suggesting that the firm was close to insolvency and also had some of its senior executives arrested by Chinese police in early August.
Previously, Huobi Global was also ordered to close its operations in Malaysia following an enforcement action from the country’s securities regulator in May 2023.
Huobi did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s request to comment.
An SBI Holdings representative told Cointelegraph that the company had not filed any crypto-asset ETF applications.
Homelessness minister Rushanara Ali has resigned after reportedly hiking the rent on a property she owns by hundreds of pounds – something described by one of her tenants as “extortion”.
That was just weeks after the previous tenants’ contract ended, The i Paper said.
Four tenants who rented a house in east London from Ms Ali were sent an email last November saying their lease would not be renewed, and which also gave them four months’ notice to leave, the newspaper reported.
The property was then re-listed with a £700 rent increase within weeks, the publication added.
In a letter to the prime minister, Ms Ali said that remaining in her role would be a “distraction from the ambitious work of this government”.
She added: “Further to recent reporting, I wanted to make it clear that at all times I have followed all relevant legal requirements.
“I believe I took my responsibilities and duties seriously, and the facts demonstrate this.”
Laura Jackson, one of Ms Ali’s former tenants, said she and three others collectively paid £3,300 in rent.
Weeks after she and her fellow tenants had left, the self-employed restaurant owner said she saw the house re-listed with a rent of around £4,000.
“It’s an absolute joke,” she said. “Trying to get that much money from renters is extortion.”
Sir Keir Starmer said Ms Ali’s work in government would leave a ‘lasting legacy’. Pic: PA
Ms Ali’s house, rented on a fixed-term contract, was put up for sale while the tenants were living there, and was only relisted as a rental because it had not sold, according to The i Paper.
The government’s Renters’ Rights Bill includes measures to ban landlords who end a tenancy to sell a property from re-listing it for six months.
The Bill, which is nearing its end stages of scrutiny in Parliament, will also abolish fixed-term tenancies and ensure landlords give four months’ notice if they want to sell their property.
Something Sir Keir’s increasingly unpopular government could have done without
Rushanara Ali’s swift and humiliating demise is a classic example of paying the price for the politician’s crime of “Do as I say, not as I do”.
She was Labour’s minister for homelessness, for goodness’ sake, yet she ejected tenants from her near-£1m town house then hiked the rent.
A more egregious case of ministerial double standards it would be difficult to imagine. She had to go and was no doubt told by 10 Downing Street to go quickly.
MP for the East End constituency of Bethnal Green and Stepney, Ms Ali was the very model of a modern Labour minister: a degree in PPE from Oxford University.
In her resignation letter to Sir Keir Starmer, she said she is quitting “with a heavy heart”. Really? She presumably didn’t have a heavy heart when she ejected her four tenants.
She’d previously spoken out against “private renters being exploited” and said the government would “empower people to challenge unreasonable rent increases”.
She was charging her four former tenants £3,300 a month. Yet after they moved out, she charged her new tenants £4,000, a rent increase of more than 20%.
In an area represented by the left-wing firebrand George Galloway from 2005 to 2010, Ms Ali had a majority of under 1,700 at the election last year.
Ominously for Labour, an independent candidate was second and the Greens third. No doubt Jeremy Corbyn’s new party will also stand next time.
In her resignation letter to the PM, Ms Ali said continuing in her ministerial role would be a distraction. Too right.
A distraction Sir Keir and his increasingly unpopular government could have done without.
Responding to her resignation, shadow housing secretary Sir James Cleverly said: “I said that her actions were total hypocrisy and that she should go if the accusations were shown to be true.”
A Liberal Democrat spokesperson said: “Rushanara Ali fundamentally misunderstood her role. Her job was to tackle homelessness, not to increase it.”
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Previously, a spokesperson for Ms Ali said the tenants “stayed for the entirety of their fixed term contract, and were informed they could stay beyond the expiration of the fixed term, while the property remained on the market, but this was not taken up, and they decided to leave the property”.
The prime minister thanked Ms Ali for her “diligent work” and for helping to “deliver this government’s ambitious agenda”.
Sir Keir Starmer said her work in putting in measures to repeal the Vagrancy Act would have a “significant impact”.
And he said she had been trying to encourage “more people to engage and participate in our democracy”, something that would leave a “lasting legacy”.
Politics
Rushanara Ali: Humiliating demise for Labour minister after a most egregious case of double standards
Rushanara Ali’s swift and humiliating demise is a classic example of paying the price for the politician’s crime of “do as I say, not as I do”.
She was Labour’s minister for homelessness, for goodness’ sake, yet she ejected tenants from her near-£1m town house and then hiked the rent.
Politics Hub: Minister’s resignation as it happened
A more egregious case of ministerial double standards it would be difficult to imagine. She had to go and was no doubt told by 10 Downing Street to go quickly.
Rushanara Ali reportedly hiked the rent on a property she owns. Pic: PA
‘A heavy heart’ – really?
MP for the East End constituency of Bethnal Green and Stepney, Ms Ali was the very model of a modern Labour minister: A degree in PPE from Oxford University.
In her resignation letter to Sir Keir Starmer, she said she is quitting “with a heavy heart”. Really? She presumably didn’t have a heavy heart when she ejected her four tenants.
She’d previously spoken out against “private renters being exploited” and said her government would “empower people to challenge unreasonable rent increases”.
The now former minister was charging her four former tenants £3,300 a month. Yet after they moved out, she charged her new tenants £4,000 – a rent increase of more than 20%.
Read more politics news:
Fact-checking Farage’s claims
Why chancellor has little to cheer
The report about the Labour MP first emerged in the i newspaper. Pic: UK Parliament
A fragile constituency for Labour?
In an area represented by the left-wing firebrand George Galloway from 2005 to 2010, Ms Ali had a majority of under 1,700 at the election last year.
Ominously for Labour, an independent candidate was second and the Greens third. No doubt Jeremy Corbyn’s new party will also stand next time.
In her resignation letter to the PM, Ms Ali said continuing in her ministerial role would be a distraction. Too right.
A distraction Sir Keir and his increasingly unpopular government could have done without.
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