This deal could be huge.
Leon Li, the founder of Huobi Global is currently in talks to sell a majority of his company. Huobi is one of the largest crypto exchanges with a daily trade volume that exceeds $1 billion a day. If completed this sale would be massive and could the the first instance of a Amorite stake sale by a large crypto firm.
Huobi was co-founded in 2013 by Li and has recently handled $1.2 billion in crypto transactions this past Aug. 12 which is more than the trades on Coinbase Global Inc. according to reports by CoinGecko.
The amount Li is looking to sell is approx. 60% of the company. The transaction would skyrocket the company valuation to that of $3 billion or more. Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX has been reported to be in talks with Li about the sale, Preliminary talks have also been reported of being had with Justin Sun, Founder of Tron but Sun has since denied those reports in a tweet.
The deal is rumored to be completed by the end of this month and Lu is seeking a reported $2-3 billion for the deal which may fetch $1 billion in a stake sale.
FTX has acquired a couple of crypto companies recently such as Liquid in April and Bitvo in June. Currently the company is in talks to buy BlockFi at $240 million. FTX has also been looking into purchasing Celsius Network and Voyager Digital.
The news of the sale has helped the native token HT see a near 25% jump in value.The firm was at one point in time the largest trader of Bitcoin but has since left China thus causing a drop in user base and valuation. The departure from the Chinese market came after a bout of new rules and regulations set by the Chinese government declaring crypto transactions illegal. The company then expanded into Turkey and Brazil and its biggest competitors are Binance and FTX, the latter which is in talks to buy the shares.
The buyout does not specify if Huobi Technology Hodlings is also a part of the sale. The Hong Kong listed company manages digital assets for pro investors and has licensing from the Hong King’s securities regulator. The sale takes place as many companies are either filing bankruptcy or restructuring from massive losses during this bear market and other major instances such as the fall of Terra.
Mergers and acquisitions are actually the sign of a healthy market and this sale may be born from Li recognizing more regulations and rules are coming from the United States as well.Huobi has a DLT license in Gibraltar but with MiCA regulation coming in Europe and SEC vs CFTC control battle in the US there could be some uncertainty in the market. Currently many are thinking FTX may end up being the purchaser of the stake as the SBF firm has been on a spending spree of such lately. The crypto community as a whole will have to wait to see the result of this sale – one which could be remembered as one of the biggest in current crypto history.
