New Reports Suggest Justin Sun and SBF to be the Actual Buyers of Huobi

There is another twist to the Huobi takeover which was reported a few days ago. Barely 48 hours after reports emerged that the Hong Kong-based assets management company, About Capital Management, had acquired the exchange, more reports are showing that the real buyers, albeit going through the asset management company are TRON founder, Justin Sun and Sam BAnkman-Fried, CEO of FTX.

The initial reports of the final acquisition appeared on October 8, 2022. This was after several months of speculation, associated with events that suggested that Li Lin, the founder and major shareholder of Huobi was about to sell all his shares. In the period leading to the final acquisition, both Sun and SBF were linked to the transaction. However, SBF had earlier denied that such a business transaction was in the works.

In a Twitter post in August, SBF outrightly denied that his company was interested in buying Huobi exchange. “No, we are not planning to acquire Huobi,” Bankman-Fried said on Twitter, to be “explicit because a lot of people are saying this.”

The latest reports on the subject tell otherwise, as Chinese blockchain reporter, Colin Wu has cited multiple sources, and reported that the brain behind the About Capital Management purchase is TRON’s Justin Sun, with the help of FTX CEO, SBF.

On October 10, 2022, Sun tweeted that he has been appointed to the Global Advisory Board of Huobi Global. This was barely 48 hours after the emergence of the final acquisition reports of the company by About Capital Management. According to Sun’s tweet, the Board has been given the responsibility of managing the global expansion program of the company strategically and also guiding the company’s business development.

Other individuals were also added to the company’s advisory board. They include; Ted Chen, CEO of About Capital, Du Jun, co-founder of Huobi Global, Wang Yang, Vice President of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and Leah Wald, CEO of Valkyrie Investments, according to a Huobi announcement.

Further proof of Sun’s involvement in the takeover of Huobi as reported by Wu is the fact that he was present on October 8, 2022, at the delivery site of the transaction which is estimated to be worth about $1 billion. Additionally, Jinglin Assets, a leading private equity firm in China also reported Sun to be the actual buyer of Huobi while using About Capital Management as a mere bridge for the acquisition.

Other signals that seem to drive home these latest reports include Sun’s recent close association with Huobi, even during public engagements. During the TOKEN2049 conference in Singapore just last month, Sun was seen at the Huobi stand and also at the after party which was organized for the company’s employees. Wu also reports a discussion between Sun and SBF to acquire Huobi while in Singapore. Although this rumor has been out for a while, there has been no response by SBF to either confirm or deny it.

The news of this acquisition has had some impact on HT and TRX, both of which are the native tokens of Huobi and TRON respectively. Having been in a predominantly sideways direction for the past few months, HT made a 5% spike in less than three hours with the breaking of the news. During the same period, TRX, which has also been in a sideways movement, reflected a similar spike.

The Huobi takeover comes after the company communicated the challenges it has faced as a result of the Chinese crackdown on cryptocurrencies. In December 2021, Huobi had to remove Chinese users from its platform, an action that led to a significant drop in the company’s revenue. Perhaps, with its new investors, new strategies would be implemented that would see the company bounce back from its recent setbacks.