Updated Rules checked 2026-10-13
For readers in Taiwan, the first thing to know about HTX (formerly Huobi) is a restriction: Article 1.2 of the HTX Platform User Agreement lists Taiwan among the regions where derivatives trading is prohibited, so Taiwan users can’t trade HTX futures; what they can use is spot and other services. Spot fees for regular users (Prime 0) are 0.2% for both Maker and Taker, tied with XT for the highest among the 13 exchanges this site covers; with the HTX or TRX discount turned on, they drop to 0.15%.
On the record, HTX had hot wallets hacked twice, on 2023-09-24 and 2023-11-22. The first time the hacker returned the funds; the second time HTX said it would compensate users in full. The latest proof of reserves that can be read is the 2026-06-01 snapshot: BTC 103%, ETH 100%, stablecoins combined 104%. As of the list updated by Taiwan’s Securities and Futures Bureau (SFB) on 2026-09-29, HTX is not on the anti-money laundering (AML) registration list of Taiwan’s Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC). Below, following the questions people ask most, I go through each point with its source.
Key takeaways: Article 1.2 of the HTX Platform User Agreement (September 2026 update) lists Taiwan among the regions where derivatives trading is prohibited, so Taiwan users can’t trade HTX futures. HTX’s Prime 0 spot fees are 0.2% for both Maker and Taker, and the HTX or TRX discount takes 25% off, to 0.15% (fee page, 2026-10-11). On 2023-09-24 about 5,000 ETH was taken from an HTX hot wallet, and the hacker later returned it; on 2023-11-22 an HTX hot wallet and the HECO cross-chain bridge were hacked at the same time, and HTX said its own loss was about USD 30 million and that it would compensate users in full. The latest HTX proof of reserves that can be read is the 2026-06-01 snapshot: BTC 103%, ETH 100%, stablecoins combined 104%. Withdrawing USDT from HTX over BEP20 costs only 0.01 USDT, and both MAX and BitoPro accept that network (2026-10-12).
The information below was compiled on 2026-10-13 (data check date) from official pages and this site’s verification records. The check date for each figure is given in the relevant section, and it is all provided for reference.
What are HTX’s fees?
| Market (Prime 0) | Maker | Taker | With HTX/TRX discount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spot | 0.2% | 0.2% | 0.15%/0.15% (25% off) |
| USDT-margined perpetual futures | 0.02% | 0.06% | 0.019%/0.057% (5% off) |
| Coin-margined futures | 0.02% | 0.05% | 5% off |
The rates come from the HTX “My Fees” page (read on 2026-10-11), and the discounts follow the HTX token listing announcement and the HTX announcement on TRX fee deduction. You can use either HTX or TRX, not both. The two futures rows only matter in regions where futures trading is allowed; they don’t apply to Taiwan users.
In dollar terms: buying 10,000 USDT of BTC costs 20 USDT at Prime 0, or 15 USDT with the discount; the same order at an exchange with 0.1% spot fees costs 10 USDT. At Prime 0, Maker and Taker cost the same, so switching to limit orders doesn’t save on fees. Prime 1 makes a more noticeable difference: you’re upgraded if you meet any one of these: 5,000 USDT in account assets, HTX holdings worth 1,000 USDT, or 30,000 USDT in 30-day spot volume. The spot Taker fee then drops to 0.17%, or 0.1275% with the discount. Keep in mind, though, that holding assets on an exchange carries custody risk and the price of the HTX token moves up and down; weigh both before adding assets just to upgrade.
In regions where futures trading is allowed, opening a 10x position with 1,000 USDT of margin gives a 10,000 USDT position, and one round trip at the Taker rate costs 12 USDT. A leveraged position may be force-liquidated if the market moves against it. The full Prime table and withdrawal fees are in the HTX fees guide, and you can estimate futures costs with the perpetual futures cost calculator.
How much does the HTX referral code rebate? Has the rebate changed?
HTX calculates rebates on the net fees the invitee actually pays. Net fees are the fees left after deducting special items such as spot fee vouchers, futures trial funds, zero-fee and negative-fee trades (HTX invite-to-trade reward rules). No rewards are paid for market maker accounts or invitees at Prime 9 and above; since 2024-05-15, invited users can only reach Prime 8 at most. If fees are paid in HTX, rewards are settled in HTX; if paid in TRX, they’re settled in TRX. I found no route in HTX’s official guides for adding or changing a referral code after sign-up, so enter it when you register.
The automatic exchange rebate on this site’s HTX referral code is currently 30%. The chart and log below show how this rate has changed over time.
- 30% (tracking started)
Rates sync with the exchange daily; every change is recorded automatically.
The discount and the rebate multiply: your actual spot cost can be estimated as “original fee × 0.75 × (1 − rebate rate).” For how to sign up, see the HTX referral code page; what you can do if you’ve already signed up is covered in how to switch your HTX referral code.
Does HTX have proof of reserves?
Yes. HTX states that it publishes proof of reserves every month and provides a Merkle tree so users can confirm their account was included.
| Item | HTX |
|---|---|
| Latest snapshot that can be read | 2026-06-01 (UTC+8) |
| BTC/ETH reserve ratios | 103%/100% |
| Stablecoins | USDT not published separately; stablecoins combined 104% |
| Update frequency (official wording) | Monthly |
| Third-party verification | Not stated officially |
| Custody | Custody wallet assets are held by a third-party custodian |
The figures come from HTX Square’s June 2026 proof of reserves announcement, and the custody notes are on the HTX PoR page. The PoR page only shows figures after running JavaScript, and I couldn’t read them during the 2026-10-12 check.
Three things to note about this table. First, from 2026-06-01 to the 2026-10-13 data check date is 134 days; HTX says it publishes monthly, but the latest publicly readable period stops at June. Second, ETH at 100% means there was no surplus buffer at the moment of the snapshot. Third, USDT is combined with other stablecoins, so the combined figure doesn’t show whether USDT on its own is fully covered; and users can’t verify the third-party custody portion on-chain themselves. This site couldn’t find the size of a protection fund. For a comparison of all 13 exchanges, see exchange proof of reserves compared.
Has HTX had any security or withdrawal incidents?
- 2023-09-24: about 5,000 ETH (about USD 8 million) was taken from a hot wallet. The hacker later returned it, and adviser Justin Sun confirmed that HTX paid a 250 ETH white-hat bounty (The Block).
- 2023-11-22: an HTX hot wallet and the HECO cross-chain bridge were hacked at the same time. HTX said it lost about USD 30 million (South China Morning Post), and the HECO bridge lost a further USD 86.6 million or so (Cointelegraph). HTX suspended deposits and withdrawals and said it would compensate in full; from 11-26 it gradually restored deposits and withdrawals for BTC, ETH, TRX and USDT, after about 4 days (Bloomberg).
- Regulation: on 2023-12-28, India’s Financial Intelligence Unit issued non-registration notices to 9 offshore platforms, including what was then Huobi.
Two hacks within two months makes HTX the only such case in this site’s records for the 13 exchanges. Each exchange’s incidents and suspension days are in exchange safety records. HTX has also warned about people impersonating its staff and charging fees to “lift withdrawal restrictions”; HTX states that appeals can only go through the in-app help center or the official customer service email, and are completely free (HTX anti-fraud channel announcement). Other tactics are covered in exchange scam types.
Which countries can’t use HTX?
Article 1.2 of the HTX Platform User Agreement (September 2026 update) has two tiers. Regions where all services are prohibited: mainland China, the US, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela, Hong Kong, the UK, Singapore, Myanmar, Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Sevastopol, Russia, and all EU member states. Regions where derivatives trading is prohibited include Taiwan, Israel, Iraq, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Ecuador, Kyrgyzstan and New Zealand, among others.
| 16 regions this site compares | HTX terms |
|---|---|
| United States, United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Singapore | All services prohibited |
| European Union | All member states prohibited |
| Canada, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, India, South Korea, Mexico, Brazil, Vietnam, Indonesia | Not listed in the terms |
HTX is the only one of the 13 exchanges that lists every EU member state as not served, while Canada is not on its list. The agreement also states that the list of restricted regions may change, and users won’t necessarily be notified, so keep an eye on the latest version yourself. India isn’t on the list, but it has a regulator’s non-registration notice. For a side-by-side of every exchange, see exchange restricted countries.
What products does HTX offer?
- Spot: 0.2% at Prime 0, with an HTX or TRX discount available. HT was Huobi’s former platform token; since 2024-01-22 the discount has used HTX, the governance token of HTX DAO, and TRX was added on 2024-03-08.
- Futures (not available to Taiwan users): USDT-margined perpetual futures, coin-margined futures, and TradFi contracts on stocks, forex, commodities and more, which have their own fee schedule. Funding settles every 8, 4 or 1 hours depending on the pair; in official data on 2026-10-12, 273 of 382 USDT perpetual futures settled every 8 hours, and 4-hour settlement accounted for 25% (HTX funding fee guide).
- Earn: flexible USDT is shown at 10.00% APY, labeled “APY Boost”; tiers and limits are only visible after logging in. You subscribe at time T, interest starts accruing from T+1 hour, and it compounds hourly (HTX Earn, snapshot of 2026-10-13). There is also a 9.00% flexible product for SVIP users only.
- Convert: HTX states that it charges no fee and that prices are set by current market conditions (HTX beginner’s guide to Convert).
- C2C and card purchases: buying crypto on P2P has a 0% fee, with prices set by the advertiser; card purchase quotes include card network and other fees, HTX’s spread and a fixed service fee (HTX buy crypto fee guide).
The 10.00% flexible rate is an APY that already includes hourly compounding, so it can’t be compared directly with the APR most exchanges show; the tier rules can’t be seen before logging in, so this site hasn’t calculated an overall annual rate. For a comparison of 13 exchanges, see USDT flexible savings rates compared.
Spot grids are especially costly on HTX: at a 0.2% fee rate, each grid step needs a spacing above about 0.40% just to cover the fees on both sides, twice what a 0.1% exchange needs. The math is in grid bot fees.
What should Taiwan users know about HTX?
- No futures: Article 1.2 of the HTX Platform User Agreement lists Taiwan among the regions where derivatives trading is prohibited, so Taiwan users can only use spot and other services. The agreement states that the list may change without necessarily notifying users, so go by the version in force when you use it.
- FSC registration: as of the 2026-09-29 update of the SFB’s “businesses and persons providing virtual asset services” list, HTX is not on the FSC’s AML registration list. When the FSC commented on the FTX collapse, it noted that offshore trading platforms fall outside the dispute mechanisms of the Securities and Futures Investors Protection Center (SFIPC) and the Financial Ombudsman Institution (FOI).
- TWD deposits and withdrawals: the common approach is to buy USDT with New Taiwan dollars (TWD) on MAX or BitoPro and then withdraw it to HTX; HTX doesn’t list a deposit fee. HTX’s pages don’t say whether P2P has a TWD market.
- Transfer costs: to send USDT from HTX to MAX or BitoPro, the cheapest route for both is BEP20 at 0.01 USDT, while TRC20 is 0.5 USDT (2026-10-12). Transfer back 24 times a year and BEP20 costs 0.24 USDT, the same as the BEP20 fee at Binance, Bitget and Ourbit. On that day, HTX had USDT withdrawals suspended on networks such as Arbitrum and Polygon, so check the status on the withdrawal page before sending. For a fee comparison, see USDT withdrawal fees compared.
- Official channels: the official domain is htx.com. When I checked on 2026-10-12, HTX didn’t come up in a search of the Taiwan App Store; on Google Play the developer name is still the old name, Huobi, and the contact email is on the huobigroup.com domain. Check these before downloading, and don’t install anything whose name is close but doesn’t match. This site found no HTX official verification tool that can be opened directly; the support email HTX has published is [email protected] (HTX anti-fraud channel announcement). Impersonation tactics are covered in crypto exchange scam types.
Who is HTX a good fit for?
- People in Taiwan who only trade spot in modest amounts: Prime 0 spot is 0.2%, or 0.15% with the discount; the same volume at a 0.1% exchange costs half as much, so if the coin you want is also listed elsewhere, factor in that gap.
- People who already hold HTX or TRX: turning on the discount cuts spot fees by a flat 25%.
- People who often move USDT back to Taiwan platforms: BEP20 costs 0.01 USDT per transfer, and both MAX and BitoPro accept that network.
- Taiwan users who want futures, futures copy trading or futures grids: not suitable, as the HTX user agreement prohibits Taiwan users from trading derivatives.
- People who want to run spot grids: each grid step needs a spacing above about 0.40%, so you’ll have far fewer grid levels than at an exchange with a 0.1% fee rate.
FAQ
Is HTX safe?
No exchange can guarantee safety; what you can look at is the record. HTX had hot wallets hacked twice, in September and November 2023: the first time the hacker returned the funds, and the second time HTX said it would compensate in full, with deposits and withdrawals gradually restored after about 4 days. On reserves, the latest period that can be read is the 2026-06-01 snapshot, with BTC 103% and ETH 100%, which lags behind the monthly frequency HTX states.
Is HTX a scam?
HTX itself is not a scam; it is an exchange in actual operation, formerly known as Huobi, and its official site is htx.com. Its hot wallets were hacked twice in 2023: the first time the hacker returned the funds, and the second time HTX said it would compensate users in full. What people online call a “Huobi scam” is usually a fake website, fake app, fake customer support or fake investment group using the Huobi name. The usual demands are to add someone on LINE, to transfer USDT to a “platform” outside the exchange, or to pay an “unfreezing fee” or “security deposit” before you can withdraw. HTX’s announcement states that appealing a withdrawal restriction is completely free, and anyone who asks you to pay first to unfreeze your funds is running a scam (HTX anti-fraud channel announcement). Not being a scam doesn’t mean there’s no risk: HTX is not on the FSC’s AML registration list, and any dispute can only be handled under the platform’s terms. Impersonation tactics are covered in crypto exchange scam types, and rebate-related scams in rebate scam warning signs.
Are Huobi and HTX the same exchange?
Yes. HTX is the former Huobi, and as of 2026-10-12 its developer name on Google Play still showed Huobi. The platform token also changed from HT to HTX, the governance token of HTX DAO, and since 2024-01-22 HT no longer gives a fee discount.
Can I trade HTX futures in Taiwan?
No. Article 1.2 of the HTX Platform User Agreement (September 2026 update) lists Taiwan among the regions where derivatives trading is prohibited, so Taiwan users can only use spot and other services, which makes the 0.2% spot fee the main trading cost on HTX.
Could HTX go bust?
There’s no way to tell from public data whether an exchange will collapse. Proof of reserves only shows that, at the moment of 2026-06-01, the user assets included in the calculation were matched by at least the same amount of coins; it doesn’t include the company’s liabilities. HTX combines its stablecoins, and part of its assets is held by a third-party custodian, which users can’t verify on-chain themselves. To lower your risk, spread your holdings across places and move coins you won’t trade for a long time to a wallet you control yourself.
Can I withdraw from HTX to a bank account in Taiwan?
HTX’s pages don’t list a TWD withdrawal channel. The usual approach is to transfer USDT to MAX or BitoPro, sell it for TWD and then withdraw to your bank; sending from HTX over BEP20 costs 0.01 USDT (2026-10-12).
Why are HTX spot fees higher?
HTX’s Prime 0 spot fee is 0.2%, while most exchanges charge 0.1%. There are two ways to lower it: turn on the HTX or TRX discount for 0.15%, or move up to Prime 1 for a 0.17% Taker fee; both together give 0.1275%. For the ranking of all 13, see exchanges with the lowest fees.
Can I add an HTX referral code after signing up?
I found no route in HTX’s official guides for adding or changing a referral code after sign-up, so the code needs to be entered when you register. For what you can do if you’ve already signed up, see how to switch your HTX referral code and can you add a referral code after signing up.
To sign up directly, see the HTX referral code page; fee details are in the HTX fees guide. To compare safety records and reserves across exchanges, see exchange safety records; referral codes and rebates for all 13 exchanges are collected in crypto exchange referral codes.