Chinese Exchange Giant Huobi Global Acquired by About Capital

Formerly China’s leading crypto exchange, Huobi Global, has announced that it has been taken over by an investment strategy company.

On Oct. 7, Huobi Global announced that its controlling shareholders have completed the transactions to sell their entire shareholdings to About Capital Management.

About Capital is a low-key Hong Kong-based fund management firm that was started by Ted Chen in 2008. Chen also founded the Chinese hedge fund giant Greenwoods Asset Management.

The announcement stated that About Capital’s buyout will not affect Huobi’s “core operation and business management teams.” The transaction only involves the changing of the controlling shareholders.

Earlier this year, Bloomberg valued Huobi Global at $3 billion, as reported by BeInCrypto. In September, FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried denied that he was planning to buy the company.

Continued global expansion for Huobi

Following the transition of ownership Huobi Global will “embrace a series of new international brand promotion and business expansion initiatives,” the announcement stated before adding that this includes a global strategic advisory board led by leading industry figures. There will also be an injection of capital for a margin and risk provision fund, and “measures to further enhance competitiveness.”

About Capital CEO Chen stated, “We believe the virtual asset industry is still in its early stage and there is tremendous upside for long-term growth.”

Huobi was founded in 2013 so it rode the crypto boom before Beijing came down on digital assets with a hammer. The exchange, along with its rival Binance, stopped serving Chinese customers after the ban and has focused on global expansion.

Huobi founder Leon Li said that following the firm’s exit from China in 2021, “we have accelerated our globalization push amidst a challenging market environment, which adds to the impetus for Huobi to seek a new shareholding structure with a global vision and international resources.”

Huobi Global currently has 647 coins and 970 trading pairs available and a reported 24-hour volume of $568 million according to CoinGecko. The company also operates a venture capital arm called Huobi Ventures, and a crypto cloud service.

HT price reaction

Huobi Global’s native HT token has gained marginally on the news, increasing 3.3% over the past 24-hours hours according to CoinGecko. At the time of writing, HT was trading at $4.29, opposing the wider market trend which is in the red today.

However, HT has suffered in the bear market along with its brethren having slumped 89% from its May 2021 all-time high of just under $40.

There are 131 million HT tokens in circulation giving it a market capitalization of $560 million and a crypto cap rank of 74.

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