HTX has been operating since 2013 under one name or another and remains a genuinely liquid venue, particularly during Asian trading hours. It is also the exchange in this list with the most recent pattern of security incidents, the least transparent ownership, and the weakest regulatory footing — a combination that keeps its score below every other large venue we rate.
What HTX actually is
A spot and derivatives exchange with broad asset coverage, an earn desk and a launchpad, rebranded from Huobi in 2023 after a change of control. Its advisory relationship with Justin Sun and the deep entanglement between HTX, Tron and the broader ecosystem around them is the single most important structural fact about the venue: assets, liquidity and governance across those entities are not independent of one another in the way separate businesses normally are.
Security: the record
In September and November 2023 HTX suffered hot-wallet compromises totalling tens of millions of dollars, with a further incident affecting the associated HECO bridge. The exchange covered the losses and continued operating, but the post-mortems were thin and the pattern — multiple compromises within months — points to systemic key-management weakness rather than isolated bad luck. Our security mark of 5.5 is the lowest in the category and reflects that pattern rather than any single event.
Fees and execution
Spot fees run around 0.20% before discounts, above the market norm, falling with volume and token holdings. Derivatives pricing is competitive. Order-book depth on majors is real, and the long tail behaves as it does everywhere: thin, wide, and unsuited to size.
Disclosure and regulation
Ownership and control are difficult to establish from public sources, the operating entity has changed jurisdiction more than once, and formal licensing is minimal. Proof-of-reserves attestations are published but with less consistency than OKX's or Bitget's. In a category where the disclosure baseline is already low, HTX sits below it.
Who should use HTX
Traders who need Asian-hours depth on a specific asset that is meaningfully more liquid here than elsewhere, for the duration of that trade. There is no case for using it as a custodian or a primary account. If the asset you want is available on OKX, Bybit or KuCoin at comparable depth, use one of those instead.