The digital currency exchange, Huobi, has released a statement that it is to begin issuing a digital token from today (23rd January 2018). The currency, which will be known as HT or the Huobi Token, will be capped at an offering of 500 million tokens and the majority of it (around 300 million HT) will at first be given to investors. The rest of the Huobi Token will be kept as a way of offering incentives and team rewards.

Despite the rhetoric around the statement, Huobi officials have said that the offering is not an ICO. The reasoning behind this announcement is that the 500 million new digital tokens are to be offered only to existing users who are already actively using the platform and service put forward by the cryptocurrency exchange.

The announcement also included the information that 20% of annual profits from now on will be put into a buyback programme aimed at bringing HT off the market. This type of structuring hopes to promote company loyalty over the longer-term through the advance collection of fees.

Huobi has been restructuring the entire business model since Chinese officials announced there were to be new regulations regarding cryptocurrency exchanges and ICOs.