Huobi dismisses plunging stablecoin reserves as ‘FUD’

Exchange spokesperson refuted claims that any team members have been detained by Chinese authorities

article-image

Grey82/Shutterstock, modified by Blockworks

share

Following speculation that Chinese officials detained some Huobi executives, the crypto exchange’s stablecoin reserves have dwindled as much as 34% in the past week.

Local Chinese media reported that law enforcement detained at least three Huobi executives. Allegedly, some employees were sent an urgent notification advising them to depart the country at the earliest.

Adam Cochran, a partner at Cinneamhain Ventures, relayed information he alleges came directly from a high-ranking executive at Tron, stating that team members were facing a criminal probe tied to activities associated with Huobi.

Loading Tweet..

DefiLlama data indicates that between Aug. 1 and 7, Huobi’s USDT balances saw a significant decrease of $40 million. As of Monday, the total value locked in Huobi was at $2.4 billion, marking a decline from its $3 billion position at the beginning of the year.

Meanwhile, Nansen reported that Huobi’s net outflows, excluding bitcoin, amounted to $32.9 million in the past 24 hours, a figure representing 1% of the total assets currently held by the exchange.

Loading Tweet..

A Huobi spokesperson denied any allegations of team member arrests, and said the company contacted “all original sources of misinformation” requesting them to retract or correct their statements.

Additionally, they dismissed claims of significant outflows, asserting that the data provided by DefiLlama was not accurate.

“Please check out Nansen, which has the most updated and accurate real-time data, the relevant team is working with DefiLlama to update their data tracking,” they told Blockworks via email.

Separately on Monday, Justin Sun, a member of Huobi’s global advisory board, called on observers to disregard the FUD.

“#TRON and #Huobi will thrive through continuous development,” he wrote. “Trust in our vision and community efforts for a stronger future.”


Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.

Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter.

Get alpha directly in your inbox with the 0xResearch newsletter — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.

The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.

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.

recent research

kamino cover.jpg

Research

Kamino has solidified its position as the leading money market on Solana and is emerging as a DeFi bluechip. Although DeFi competition is fierce, Kamino has kept iterating on its product to provide the best-in-class UX, paired with a robust risk management framework and battle-tested infrastructure. Given the rollout of Kamino Lend V2, the protocol may scale aggressively over the coming months, penetrating previously untapped markets in Solana DeFi.

article-image

Swan Bitcoin managing director John Haar is among those expecting that the election may only have a short-term impact on crypto markets

article-image

As part of the deal, Arcium will take over Inpher’s core team and technology: Lightspeed exclusive

article-image

Platforms like Polymarket and Drift’s BET show higher probabilities for a Trump victory, reflecting current market sentiments

article-image

While DAOs promote transparency and community involvement, underlying centralized mechanisms reveal the challenges in achieving full decentralization

article-image

Also in the tokenized fund space, Franklin Templeton launches on Base and Securitize hits $1 billion in tokenized RWA onchain

article-image

It turns out that bitcoin never actually hit an all-time high in March. Thanks a lot, inflation.