Who Takes Huobi?

Huobi’s founder may consider selling a majority stake in the crypto exchange company, initially founded in China for $3 billion. FTX and Justin Sum are mentioned among some potential investors. The deal might turn out to be the biggest one in the crypto world.

According to Bloomberg investigation published in the middle of August, Huobi Group founder Leon Li is in talks with investors on selling his majority stake (around 60%) in the crypto-exchange Huobi at a valuation of $3 billion. Multiple sources cite the company spokesperson, who stated that:

“He [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.”

Huobi native token has not been doing well this year, but right after the Bloomberg publication, it showed a noticeable increase (from $4,36 to $5,58) but then dropped down to $4,75 as of today (Sep 4).

The investigation refers to people who are familiar with the bid and says that “Tron founder Justin Sun and FTX are among those who’ve had preliminary contact with Huobi about a share transfer”.

Sun immediately refuted the claim of being involved and FTX recently has stated that it has no intentions to acquire Huobi:

FTX has acquired a number of smaller crypto firms this year amongst which are Bitvo Exсhange and bailed out BlockFi (which is almost the same as acquisition).

It is commonplace that investors prefer not to make loud statements before a deal and we cannot be sure who will eventually take control over Huobi. The Bloomberg report can’t even verify that the deal is real, but let’s be honest: if there are people ready to pay for your company that kind of money, most likely you will sell it eventually — this is business. Yes, Huobi is one of the main players on the market, but it has only 784470 visits weekly while FTX has over 3 million and Binance has over 17 million — there is a huge difference. As the industry grows, the gap between up-players and newcomers, and the gap between huge platforms and startuppers focused on specific niches is getting wider and wider. It seems that we’ll see more and more similar acquisitions in the future which might mean the end of true decentralisation.