HTX’s growth trajectory puts in on scale with top-tier exchanges: report

HTX has quietly turned a $3.3 trillion trading year and a years‑long proof‑of‑reserves streak into its main argument for staying relevant in the post‑FTX CEX era.

In a sector crowded with more than 500 trading venues, HTX stands out as one of the few centralized exchanges that has operated continuously since 2013 while scaling into a multi‑trillion‑dollar platform.

According to reports, by the end of 2025, Huobi HTX reported approximately $3.3 trillion in annual cumulative trading volume and more than 55 million registered users worldwide, a 39% year‑on‑year increase in volume that underscores both liquidity depth and stickiness of its user base.

Spot markets accounted for over $1.9 trillion in volume as BTC and ETH trading remained the backbone of activity, while futures and perpetual contracts generated about $1.4 trillion, roughly 50% higher than the previous year, according to the company’s 2026 opening report. This combination of scale and derivatives penetration has helped HTX consistently rank among the largest exchanges by daily turnover, positioning it alongside rivals such as Binance, OKX and KuCoin in the low‑fee, high‑liquidity segment of the market.

Founded as a spot‑only venue, HTX has evolved into what it describes as a full‑stack ecosystem spanning spot, futures, yield products, OTC services, and structured token launch programs. In 2025 alone, the exchange listed 166–218 new spot assets depending on methodology, while its derivatives desk added more than 80 futures assets, nearly 70 of which delivered returns above 200%, a listing strategy that leans into early‑stage narratives and meme‑driven flows.

On the security side, HTX emphasizes a multi‑layer architecture with hot‑and‑cold wallet segregation and institutional custody integrations, and it claims to have maintained a “zero security incident” record throughout 2025 despite sector‑wide hacks that pushed crypto theft to an estimated $3.4 billion that year, according to Chainalysis. The exchange has also leaned into transparency, saying it has upheld a 100% reserve ratio for core assets over 38 consecutive months through Merkle Tree proof‑of‑reserves, and continues to publish PoR data publicly for user verification.

That transparency streak has now extended to 41–42 months of continuous PoR disclosures as of early 2026, with reserve ratios for major assets such as BTC, USDT‑denominated “USDs,” and other large caps remaining at or above 100%, according to recent HTX and third‑party notices. “Proof of Reserves plays a vital role in the cryptocurrency ecosystem,” the exchange states on its PoR portal, arguing that on‑chain attestations offer users a way to independently check aggregate backing without exposing individual balances.

Recognition has followed that posture. In February 2025, business publication Forbes named HTX one of the “World’s Most Trustworthy Crypto Exchanges,” noting that, based on its data, the platform ranked sixth globally in spot market share and had demonstrated “exceptional performance” in BTC and ETH holdings and product breadth. BeInCrypto went further, awarding HTX “Best Centralized Exchange” in its 2024 Excellence Awards, ahead of finalists including Binance, Bybit, OKX and Bitget.

HTX’s global advisor Justin Sun, who also founded the TRON network, was featured on the digital assets cover of Forbes in March 2025, with the magazine highlighting how “post‑FTX” the exchange reoriented around compliance and monthly proof‑of‑reserves. “Under Sun’s leadership, HTX has championed compliance, security, and user experience,” the PR announcement said, framing the platform as a benchmark for the convergence of traditional finance standards and crypto innovation.

Still, the path has not been without controversy. After a series of hacks in 2023 led to more than $100 million in losses across HTX, the Heco bridge and Poloniex, users pulled roughly $258 million from the exchange in the weeks following a $30 million exploit that November, according to coverage citing DeFiLlama data. Those episodes amplified industry‑wide concerns around centralized custody, but they also accelerated the current race among exchanges to harden key‑management practices and adopt independent PoR disclosures, a trend that publications such as Forbes and Chainalysis have flagged as a defining feature of the post‑2022 market structure.

Looking ahead, HTX says it will continue to lean on its “Global Expansion, Thriving Ecosystem, Wealth Effect, Security & Compliance” strategy, targeting further growth in user assets and international licensing while maintaining a reserve ratio above 100%. If it can sustain that trajectory—while avoiding the operational missteps that have felled other centralized players—HTX is likely to remain a core venue for both aggressive derivatives traders and long‑only investors seeking a liquid, feature‑rich platform for $BTC, $ETH, stablecoins and the next wave of emergent tokens.