Crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried, Justin Sun is reportedly looking at the majority takeover of Huobi
Crypto exchange Huobi Global founder Leon Li is in discussions to sell nearly 60% of his investment in Huobi, which accounts for 5% of all crypto trading volume. Reports on Saturday indicate the deal is priced between $2 billion and $3 billion.
Existing investors in Huobi, including Sequoia China and ZhenFund, were reportedly notified of Li’s decision during a shareholder meeting in July this year.
Based on initial reports, Li sees the new shareholders as “powerful and resourceful.” Moreover, potential investors must place a high premium on the Huobi brand and use sufficient funding to promote its expansion.
According to sources familiar with the transaction, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried and Tron founder Justin Sun are in discussions with Huobi regarding the purchase of the stake.
Image: Good Audience
One of the biggest deals in Crypto
Data compiled by digital currency data aggregator CoinGecko shows that Seychelles-headquartered Huobi Global is one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges, with a daily trading volume of more than $1 billion.
If completed, the transaction will be one of the largest in the crypto sector. It is expected that the acquisition can be completed by the end of this month.
This may be the first instance of a sale of a controlling stake by one of the largest crypto firms. The decline in the digital currency market has forced many of the largest companies to cut expenses and personnel.
Huobi was among the most prominent cryptocurrency trading platforms in the world, but it had to exit China, which was previously its largest user base and source of revenue.
SBF has money to finance companies
In 2021, when the Chinese government made crypto transactions illegal, Li’s company stopped offering services to the communist nation’s users.
Since the beginning of the crypto winter, Bankman-Fried’s company has provided Voyager Digital with $200 million in funding and BlockFi with a $250 million revolving line of credit.
Recently, the billionaire revealed that his firm still has “a few billion” in its coffers to fund financially drained companies.
Bankman-Fried stated in a recent podcast interview that he will spend up to $1 billion of his estimated $12.8 billion fortune on American politics in the 2024 election, joining the ranks of mega-donors such as the Koch brothers and George Soros.
Since January, SBF has donated at least 34 million dollars to political candidates and various socio-political causes.
And – did you know that Bankman-Fried’s hair can be bought as a non-fungible token?
Crypto total market cap at $1.15 trillion on the daily chart | Source: TradingView.com Featured image from Blockworks, Chart from TradingView.com
