https://wublock.substack.com/p/exclusive-the-real-buyer-of-huobi
In the early morning of October 8th, Huobi announced that the controlling shareholder company has transferred all the shares of HuobiGlobal held by the fund of About Capital Management. But WuBlockchain learned from multiple sources that Justin Sun is actually the core investor of this M&A fund. Justin Sun himself was at the delivery site in Singapore on October 8. At present, Justin Sun is vigorously recruiting, and some departments of Huobi are also taking over. The price is about $1 billion.
Justin Sun responded to WuBlockchain that he "didn't participate". But then Justin Sun’s official social media announced that he has become a global advisor to Huobi. The advisors include Chen Yihua, founder of About Capital, Du Jun, Justin Sun, Vice President of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Wang Yang, and Valkyrle Leah Wald.
Currently, Huobi Japan and Huobi Korea are coordinating cutting and selling. Li Lin will still be responsible for the completion of the liquidation of Chinese user assets. Chen Yihua, a former member of About Capital, used to be a partner of Jinglin Assets, which is known as China's No. 1 private equity firm. Therefore, it was misunderstood that Jinglin was the gold owner behind the acquisition of Huobi. But Jinglin told us they did not participate in the acquisition, and About Capital was more of a "bridge" for Justin Sun's acquisition. Why do this? People familiar with the matter said Li Lin was concerned that the Chinese government would be dissatisfied with the move, which in turn would affect his safety. Justin Sun may worry about drawing the ire of Binance, which has been supporting it.
On August 12, Bloomberg reported that Huobi Lilin was seeking to sell its majority stake in the exchange at an valuation of $3 billion. FTX and Justin Sun have made initial contact with him. Shareholders such as ZhenFund and Sequoia China learned of Li Lin's decision at the July shareholders meeting. Justin Sun tweeted to explain: "We are not currently involved in any matters related to Bloomberg's reporting." SBF said it has no plans to acquire Huobi. But it is rumored that FTX has invested to help Justin Sun. This may also push Binance, which has been supporting Justin Sun, to the position of his competitor.
Justin Sun graduated from Peking University and was selected as the first student of Jack Ma Lakeside University in 2015. He founded TRON in 2017, acquired the exchange Poloniex in 2019, and bought Buffett’s lunch in the same year, but Caixin disclosed that he has been under investigation by China since June 2018. In 2021, Justin Sun denied being investigated by the IRS and FBI, and became Grenada's representative to the World Trade Organization.
At TOKEN2049 in Singapore not long ago, Justin Sun appeared at the event site of Huobi and in the party of former employees of Huobi. Before that, Justin Sun and FTX senior staff often communicated together in Singapore to acquire Huobi.
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