Crypto Moguls Compete for Huobi Majority Stake: Report

Sam Bankman-Fried, Justin Sun contend for founder’s stake in the cryptocurrency exchange

article-image

Justin Sun (Source: Piskev91, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons); Leon Li (Source: Huobi); Sam Bankman-Fried (Source: Cointelegraph, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

share

key takeaways

  • Huobi founder seeks a valuation of up to $3 billion
  • It’s unclear whether affiliate firm Huobi Technology is part of the stake sale

Leon Li, the founder and CEO of Huobi Global, is in talks with investors to sell his majority stake in the cryptocurrency exchange, Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing unnamed sources.

Li, who co-founded Huobi in 2013, reportedly wants to sell about 60% of his stake. He’s aiming for a valuation between $2 billion to $3 billion, implying that a sale could generate over $1 billion, the report said.

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried and Tron founder Justin Sun are among potential investors that have held preliminary discussions with Huobi about the stake sale, it added.

As one of the world’s largest crypto trading platforms, Huobi often sees daily volumes above $1 billion. The exchange slowly pulled out of servicing users in China — previously a hotbed of revenue and clientele — after the country declared crypto-related transactions illegal last year. 

It isn’t clear whether the stake involved includes the company’s Hong Kong-listed affiliate Huobi Technology, which manages digital assets for investors. Huobi Tech’s shares are down 45% so far this year, TradingView data shows.

Huobi, FTX and the Tron Network didn’t return Blockworks’ request for comment by press time.

Some well-positioned venture capitalists and investors considered the recent meltdown in cryptocurrency markets as a buying opportunity for new projects. Periods of turmoil in the market are also seen as the best time to develop new services in the crypto sector.

Bankman-Fried took it upon himself to go on a deal frenzy, announcing agreements to buy Canadian crypto trading firm Bitvo, as well as Embed Financial and BlockFi. He also offered to bail out Voyager Digital, but the bankrupt crypto lender denied what it termed his “low-ball” bid.

Sun — who prefers to be known as His Excellency after a 2021 diplomatic appointment from the Caribbean island nation of Grenada — said last month he was prepared to join Bankman-Fried in offering financial support to companies within the crypto ecosystem, saying that he and the Tron protocol he founded were “ready to serve.” Sun previously acquired a stake in crypto exchange Poloniex and file-sharing pioneer BitTorrent, now called Rainberry, for $140 million.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

  • Blockworks Daily: The newsletter that helps thousands of investors understand crypto and the markets, by Byron Gilliam.
  • Empire: Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross.
  • Forward Guidance: Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin.
  • 0xResearch: Get alpha directly in your inbox — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.
  • Lightspeed: All things Solana, in your inbox, every day from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.
  • The Drop: The newsletter for crypto collectors and traders, covering games, tokens, apps, memes and more.
Tags

Upcoming Events

Javits Center North | 445 11th Ave

Tues - Thurs, March 18 - 20, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Unlocked by Template (4).png

Research

Wormhole Settlement allows for a highly scalable liquidity venue to fill user intents into a multichain, multi-VM future. By concentrating solvers’ balance sheets on Solana, transaction costs associated with solvers rebalancing inventory across destinations are eliminated. With the ability to settle bridging, swapping, and arbitrary interactions, without the costs and frictions of fragmenting solver liquidity, Wormhole Settlement has the opportunity to settle a large share of volumes in the crosschain interoperability market with a beneficial framework for both users and solvers. 

article-image

Anthony Pompliano looks for folks who are running away from something rather than towards it

article-image

The Solana world has worked itself into a frenzy over SIMD-0228

article-image

Industry watchers weigh in on Trump’s Thursday night executive order

article-image

The new game lets you embark on quests, collect loot and socialize

article-image

It’s been 11 years since Newsweek ignited a media frenzy around Dorian Nakamoto