Huobi Group is planning to launch its own stablecoin in the first half of 2019, Chris Lee, CFO and board secretary of Huobi Group, said[1] on January 20.
During an invitation-only event in Singapore last week, Lee shared his predictions for 2019 and discussed the company’s plans for the year head.
While the cryptocurrency industry faced many challenges in 2018, 2019 should be “significantly warmer,” the company said, with areas including stablecoins and institutional investors interest in digital assets continuing to grow this year.
“2018 brought us huge challenges, but I’m personally optimistic about the crypto market. I do think we’ll see things get better this year,” Lee said. “This year will be huge for stablecoins and we will be a part of that.”
Stablecoins have been all the rage in 2018[2] with scores of projects popping up to provide solutions. Prominent names and startups including Gemini, Circle, IBM and even Facebook, have all announced stablecoin projects.
A stablecoin is a class of cryptocurrencies which offers price stability and/or is backed by reserve assets. As a result, stablecoins enjoy the many benefits of being a cryptocurrency including transparency, security and privacy, without the extreme volatility that comes with most cryptocurrencies.
Notable USD-backed stablecoins include the Gemini Dollar (GUSD)[3] by the Winklevoss brothers’ cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, the USD Coin (USDC)[4] by the CENTRE consortium and blockchain startup Circle, and the Paxos Standard token by Paxos Trust, formerly itBit.
Besides Huobi’s plans to tap into the stablecoin frenzy, Lee identified a number of priorities for the company and scheduled developments in 2019, including significant upgrades to Huobi’s trading systems, further development of regional exchanges such
