Huobi founder began negotiations to sell his stake for $3 billion

What’s new? The founder of cryptocurrency exchange Huobi Leon Li is in talks to sell his controlling stake in the company. Li plans to sell about 60% of his shares at a price of up to $3 billion. According to a Bloomberg feature, possible buyers include Sam Bankman-Fried, head of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, and Justin Sun, founder of blockchain platform TRON. According to sources familiar with the matter, the deal could be finalized as early as the end of August.

Bloomberg’s material

What else is known about the share sale? A Huobi spokesman confirmed that Li is cooperating with several international organizations regarding the sale of the company’s stake, but declined to provide details.

“He [Leon Li] hopes that the new shareholders will be more powerful and resourceful and that they will value the Huobi brand and invest more capital and energy to drive the growth of Huobi,” the company said in a statement.

Bloomberg reports that Bankman-Fried declined to comment. Sun, for his part, sent a text message denying information about talks with the Huobi founder.

What is known about Huobi? It is a digital asset trading platform founded in 2013 in Beijing. Currently, it is based in Seychelles, it also has offices in Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan, and the US. The exchange has its own token called Huobi Token (HT), which is used to receive fee discounts, as well as additional rewards and bonuses. As of August 12, 10:30 UTC, the asset is trading at $5,34, having gained 20,34% per day, according to CoinMarketCap.

In late June, analyst Colin Wu reported that Huobi was planning to cut staff by 30%. According to him, the platform is suffering heavy losses due to the blocking of Chinese users in September 2021. Huobi complied with the People’s Bank of China, which recognized cryptocurrency transactions as illegal financial activities.

Earlier, Huobi co-founder Du Jun and a Chinese investor known as BMAN launched the $400 million ABCDE Capital fund to support crypto startups. The funds will go to 10 to 20 projects a year. ABCDE focuses on blockchain and applications that have the potential for mass adoption.