Huobi joins GLASS network, invests in SharesPost

Huobi, China’s largest cryptocurrency and blockchain token exchange and second largest worldwide, has joined the Global Liquidity and Settlement System (GLASS) network originated by SharesPost, a leading provider of private company liquidity solutions and private capital markets research. The exchange has also made an equity investment in the liquidity solutions and research firm.

A decentralized, worldwide network of crypto trading platforms and licensed broker dealers and exchanges, GLASS aims to be the blockchain space’s joint compliance and settlement infrastructure, with each country having licensed entities, like the U.S. Alternative Trading System (ATS) of SharesPost, on the network. Upon matching an offshore client in a digital securities trade, trading platforms like Huobi can submit the trade to the licensed entity of the network in the client’s home jurisdiction for compliant settlement.

Moreover, GLASS allows for exchanges to combine the orders of their customers for specific tokens with those of the other exchanges in order to offer enough liquidity for the predicted upsurge of tokenized assets and security tokens and propel incremental trading proceeds to member exchanges.

Once operational, GLASS will enable Huobi to settle digital security secondary trades by U.S. investors in compliance with U.S. securities laws and to pool the buy and sell orders of its nine million customers with other exchanges on a trading pair by trading pair basis.

SharesPost founder and CEO Greg Brogger said in a press release CoinReport received from Wachsman, SharesPost’s PR firm, “We are very excited to see GLASS validated by such a highly respected trading platform. It signals the start of the next stage of development in the digital securities market, and we expect it will go a long way to clearing the cloud that the absence of a legitimate global compliance solution has cast over crypto markets for the last year.”

Huobi Eco CEO Wang Run commented, “Huobi Eco, acting as the corporate development and strategic investment arm of Huobi, is focusing on developing the ecosystem surrounding Huobi’s main exchange business. Our goal is to provide more efficiency in finance and greater access to the mass population to wealth creation opportunities. Huobi Eco has always been committed to supporting solutions for Huobi to operate within the compliance requirements of every country in which we do business. This is even more important as our market matures. Institutional and other investors who are now becoming active in crypto markets are seeking safe platforms regulated by trusted authorities. Becoming a member of GLASS will provide Huobi a way to serve these customers in every jurisdiction as well as an important milestone for establishment of the Huobi Global Ecosystem.”

Talking about Huobi’s investment in SharesPost, Brogger stated, “We are thrilled to have Huobi as a shareholder. Because of Huobi’s proven ability to innovate their enormous investor base in China and throughout Asia, we can imagine no better partner in our mission to create a compliant, efficient global marketplace for all types of private growth company securities.”

Huobi is not the first exchange to join GLASS.

Before Huobi, Hong Kong-headquartered digital asset-only trading platform OKEx, decentralized digital asset exchange Stellar Decentralized Exchange and Beijing, China-headquartered regulated digital asset exchange OKCoin have also joined GLASS, connecting with the network on August 21, July 31 and July 25, respectively.

GLASS member exchanges’ aggregated volume already represents the world’s single largest pool of liquidity for token trading.

Image credits:

GLASS – via Wachsman

SharesPost – via a press release on its website