Leon Li, the founder of the cryptocurrency exchange company Huobi Group, is presently in talks with numerous investors within and beyond the crypto industry about selling his majority stake in the company for almost $1 billion. Some of the suspected buyers are Justin Sun and Sam Bankman-Fried.
FTX, Tron founders rumored to be potential buyers
Following the report by Bloomberg, the crypto tycoon Leon Li is seeking to sell off his stake in Huobi group firm, which is about 60% of the company.
People familiar with the news disclosed that Li had informed his financial backers and major stakeholders (Zhenfund and Sequoia China) about the share takeover. Meanwhile, the deal is said to be around $1-2 billion and is expected to be signed by the end of August.
“I hope that the new shareholders will be more powerful and resourceful, and will value the Huobi brand and invest more capital and energy to drive Huobi’s growth,” says Li’s spokesperson.
Major crypto experts in the industry such as Sam Bankman-Fried and Justin Sun are rumored to be among the investors interested in buying off the stake from Li. However, Sun came out plain to announce that he has not been in any discussion with Li on the deal, while an FTX spokesman didn’t comment about the information.
Huobi faced difficulties after suspending Chinese users
A month ago, reports stated that Li had wanted to sell off his stakes on the exchange. At the time, many people joked that Sam Bankman-Fried was in the best position to acquire the stakes, given FTX was out for shopping struggling firms.
Although Huobi is one of the leading crypto exchanges, it encountered some difficulties in recent months amid the bear market. Besides the market conditions, the exchange’s revenue dropped after it suspended users from China for regulatory reasons. This pushed the company to consider laying off about 30% of its employees.
Meanwhile, following the news about the potential stake sale, Huobi Token (HT) increased by almost 20% to $5.3 at the time of writing.
