High-profile crypto exchange Huobi carries on with its expansion for the global presence in the British Virgin Islands, a British Overseas Territory.

Specifically, Huobi reportedly issued an official announcement regarding its success in obtaining an investment business license from the Financial Services Commission (FSC) of the British Virgin Islands. 

The greenlight makes it possible for Huobi to function a virtual asset exchange under the subsidiary Brtuomi Worldwide Limited (BWL).

Per the announcement, BWL has plans down its pipeline to provide an array of crypto trading services, including spot trading of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) as well as derivatives trading.

The firm sets itself as the pioneering crypto asset trading platform operator in the British Virgin Islands, with license to operate an institutional-grade crypto trading platform for both professional and retail investors.

“We believe that this license will have major implications for institutional investors, as it will make us the first exchange to provide compliant crypto derivative products and trading services in the territory,” Huobi Group chief financial officer Lily Zhang said. 

“Many institutional investors in the crypto industry operate out of the British Virgin Islands, so we think there’s a large market opportunity there.”

Zhang further claimed that Huobi further holds a distributed ledger technology license in the territory of Gibraltar. Huobi Group has not established any particular timeline as to when services will widen the scope to cover the rest of the United Kingdom, the chief financial office revealed. 

Besides turning into an officially regulated entity in the British Virgin Islands together with firms such as Alameda Trust and Three Arrows Capital, BWL is also a member of the FSC’s financial innovation sandbox.