The founder and CEO of Huobi is in talks with investors to sell his majority stake for $2 billion to $3 billion.
According to a Bloomberg News report, Tron founder Justin Sun and FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried SBF are among the interested parties.
Li holds close to 60% of Huobi Global's shares. If Li manages to sell them for $3 billion, it will be the largest takeover in the market since the market cap fell below $1 trillion.
A Huobi spokesman confirmed Li's decision and said:
Sun said that he didn't have any negotiations with Li regarding the sale, and so far, FTX spokespeople didn't want to say anything.
In 2013 the company launched Huobi Global and became one of the largest exchanges of criptocurrencies. It lost momentum when it shut down operations in China in November 2021. The Chinese government deemed the transactions of cryptocurrencies illegal. The decision hit Huobi harder than any other exchange, as China was Huobi's primary market.
The exchange has expanded overseas to countries like Turkey and Brazil and is considering expansion by obtaining a FinCen license. In those regions, giants like Binance and FTX seem to be competitors of Huobi.
Li's decision to sell his shares was leaked in July 2022 but wasn't confirmed. At the time, Huobi was expected to downsize and lay off about 30% of its staff - about 300 people. The exchange said that the bearish market conditions posed a financial challenge and that the company would cut costs, including layoffs.
Since the beginning of the bear market, FTX has been bullish about Mergers Acquisitions. At the end of May, FTX U.S. president Brett Harrison said FTX was looking to spread worldwide by acquiring companies with the necessary regional licenses. He said something.
SBF was certain that many mining and exchanges would fail in the current winter market. SBF saw this as an opportunity to purchase companies that need a saving hand.
Following his words, FTX approached Bithumb, BlockFi, and Voyager Digital to purchase their organizations.