Huobi founder in talks to sell his stake in the exchange

Huobi crypto exchange founder Leon Li sells 60% stake in the company. The head of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange and the founder of Tron are interested in buying a controlling stake in Huobi.

Leon Li is in talks with a group of investors as the entrepreneur wants to sell his majority stake in the company for between $2 billion and $3 billion. FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried and Tron founder Justin Sun ) are among the investors who held preliminary talks with Lee.

Existing Huobi investors, including ZhenFund and Sequoia China, were informed of Li’s intentions during a shareholder meeting in July. Li hopes that the new shareholders will be more influential and resourceful, appreciate the Huobi brand, and invest more in the development of the company, people familiar with the situation said.

Huobi is one of the largest exchanges in the world with over $1 billion in trading volume in the last 24 hours. The exchange’s native token HT jumped from $4.45 to $5.56, a price increase of over 19%. By data experts, Huobi has every chance of becoming the second largest crypto exchange after Binance – it has many compliance licenses in dozens of jurisdictions.

However, during a recession in the market, it can be difficult to sell a large block of shares of a company for more than its market value. Huobi’s subsidiary previously received financial approval from the US Financial Crime Enforcement Agency (FinCEN).