Huobi, the third-largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, recently announced and launched a new currency. The Huobi Token (HT) rewards exchange users for their loyalty with lowered transaction fees while also carrying its own value in tradable pairs against popular currencies. The hope was to bring greater value to Huobi’s millions of users, mostly located in Asian countries. The launch of the Huobi Token follows in the footsteps of other loyalty-building tokens that other exchanges have launched. The first and most successful of these tokens has been Binance Coin (BNB). The creation of BNB secured Binance’s place as the world’s leading exchange. It offered discounted trading fees in exchange for customer loyalty, primarily functioning as a loyalty rewards system. Huobi officially announced its intentions to launch a new token on January 22, 2018. Over the course of 15 days, Huobi would distribute 300 million HT (60% of the total supply) to its pro users who purchased a discounted service package. Each morning, a new batch of HT would become available on a first come, first served basis. Huobi declared this token distribution scheme, “not an ICO,” due to the nature of the offering. Users are buying a specific service package, part of which includes HT that give a discount toward trading fees. The exchange launched the Huobi Token as part of an overall strategy to recover its user base after tightening regulations in China severely restricted cryptocurrency trading. In an interview with CoinDesk, Leon Li, Huobi’s founder, revealed that Chinese rule changes had decimated the trading volume on Huobi by 95% between September 15 and November 1, 2017. The HT token distribution began on January 24 and wrapped up on February 7, 2018. Each day of the distribution, millions of tokens sold out in mere minutes after going on sale. At that point, 300 million HT had been distributed to Huobi Pro members who bought packages. That’s 60% of the total supply currently in public circulation. Another 200 million HT, 40% of the total supply, was set aside. 20% goes toward user rewards and platform operation. The other 20% is vested for four years and constitutes the team reward. Huobi isn’t the first exchange to issue its own token. Binance (BNB), Bibox (BIX), KuCoin (KCS) and Coss (COSS) have all issued their own tokens as well.
Blockchains are quickly becoming the modern equivalent of what apps were to smartphones when they took off a decade ago. There’s a blockchain for everything - from cloud storage (Siacoin) to identity verification (Civic). But the original point of Bitcoin, the very cryptocurrency was to overturn the traditional banking system. An interestingly named token - Bread, is here to bring us back on track for this original goal. Bread technology intends to reinvent and revolutionize banking as we know it. By building a blockchain synced, Bitcoin-based wallet, the idea here is to decentralise banking and make it accessible to everyone. With a blockchain connected, easy to use Bitcoin wallet, Bread makes it easy for you to transition to a truly decentralised banking service.It also provides portfolio management tools to offer a comprehensive banking experience. Purchases made using its BRD token attract loyalty points and rewards, giving customers another lucrative reason to use the Bread wallet app. Bread was officially launched in 2014 itself and even raised VC funding to the tune of $7 million in August 2017. It then went the ICO route in December 2017, where it made available 88 million BRD tokens. $32 million was raised in the price, with BRD being valued at the rate of 900 for every 1 ETH at the time. As of June 2018, just over 6 months later, its value had fallen to above 1600 for every 1 ETH. A decentralised banking system was Bitcoin’s original vision that is either taking too long to fruition, or we’ve become an impatient audience. Whatever the case, Bread wants to accelerate the transition. A significant decision the Bread team took was to introduce the BRD token - which, with its cheap rates and loyalty/discount offerings, may emerge as the primary incentive for users joining the platform. If this is indeed the case, expect a spike in the value of the BRD cryptocurrency, something investors right now would be eyeing closely. Having said that, its fall in value since the ICO is certainly a cause for concern, and investors are advised to do their research and analyse before taking decisions.