Exclusive: Largest Chinese Crypto Exchange Huobi Finally Acquired by About Capital Management in Hong Kong
WuBlockchain learned exclusively that on October 8（UTC+8）, Huobi is acquired by About Capital Management's M&A Funds. About Capital Management became the largest shareholder and actual controller. Huobi was once the second largest global exchange after Binance and the largest Chinese exchange.
About Capital Management's M&A Funds primarily bought the entire stake in Huobi founder Li Lin. Some minority shareholders did not opt out. At present, the specific amount and the investors of this M&A fund have not yet been confirmed. Huobi Hong Kong-listed company Huobi Technology has not been confirmed to whom it is sold.
About Capital Management is a Hong Kong asset management company founded by Chen Yihua（TedChen）. The company is very secretive and low-key, with little outside information. Information shows that About Capital Management was founded by Chen Yihua in 2008. He is also a partner of Jinglin Assets, has an MBA degree from the Australian Graduate School of Management, and won the three-year Overseas Golden Bull Private Equity Investment Manager (Stock Long-Short Strategy) Award. There are shareholders and actual controllers behind About Capital Management's M&A Funds.
Huobi was founded in 2013 and received investment from Sequoia Capital and ZhenFu. Its market share has gradually increased, and after 2017, it has become the exchange with the largest market share in the Chinese world. However, its founder Li Lin gradually faded out due to physical and psychological factors.
The Shanxi incident (where Li Lin and others were arrested by local police) in 2020 became a turning point, leading to the complete removal of Chinese users from Huobi in 2021. Unlike OKX founder Xu Xingxing who chose to go abroad, Li Lin claimed to be staying in China "for his family". After the complete withdrawal in 2022, the operation of Huobi also encountered certain difficulties and began to lay off staff. During the period, the earning business incurred a large loss (although it was recovered later), which confirmed Li Lin's plan to sell more than 50% of his shares.
Huobi has more than 20 million users and holds compliance licenses in the United States, Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan and other places. It is rumored that the acquisition is valued at $3 billion. It is reported that in the early days FTX/SBF, and even Binance were involved. In the August, Huobi changed the employee mailboxes from Huobi.com to htx-inc.com, sparking rumors of SBF acquisition. But a Hong Kong-based buyer appears to be a better fit due to political and regulatory factors, people familiar with the matter said.
In addition to the Huobi Global exchange, another important asset of Huobi is Huobi Technology, a Hong Kong-listed company. On September 21, Huobi Technology issued a circular of the board of directors. The board of directors suggested that the company should be renamed "New Huo Technology Holdings Limited".
The acquisition came to an end in October. On October 5th, the huge amount of Bitcoin funds were transferred between huobi wallet addresses in 4 transactions. Finally, about 15,000 BTC was transferred to a newly created address, and 4,000 BTC was transferred to another huobi address. On September 22, 43,000 bitcoins circulated within Huobi, which was mistaken for a move to Binance. Suspected financial inventory and transfer at the end of the acquisition.
Back on October 6, 2021, Li Lin once said in the WeChat group: "Without Huobi, everyone still have Binance and OK. If you are disappointed, I'm sorry." The once most powerful person in the Chinese crypto world chose to completely leave.