According to a Bloomberg report on Friday, Leon Li, the founder of cryptocurrency exchange Huobi Global, is in negotiations to sell a majority stake in the company, which would give the company a value of at least $3 billion.
According to a source familiar with the situation, Li intends to sell nearly 60% of the company and has had preliminary discussions with Justin Sun, the founder of Tron, and Sam Bankman, the founder of cryptocurrency Fried’s exchange FTX.
According to a Huobi representative who declined to provide further details, Li is discussing the share sale with several international institutions.
In an email, the spokesperson stated that the founder “hopes that the new shareholders will be more powerful and resourceful and that they will value the Huobi brand and invest more capital and energy to drive Huobi’s growth.”
According to CoinGecko, Huobi (one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges) executes more than $1 billion in trades per day.
If completed, the transaction would be among the largest in the cryptocurrency industry’s history.
This could be the first instance of a major crypto corporation selling a majority stake.
Because of the drop in the price of cryptocurrencies, some of the world’s largest corporations have reduced spending and job opportunities.
Huobi’s investors (such as ZhenFund and Sequoia China) were informed about Li’s decision at a shareholder meeting last month.
According to the source, a deal could be finalized by the end of this month.
Li is aiming for a total valuation of $2 billion to $3 billion, implying that the stake sale could generate more than $1 billion.
During the recent market collapse, FTX has made several acquisition proposals for cryptocurrency businesses. It purchased the Japanese exchange Liquid in April before agreeing to buy the Canadian trading platform Bitvo two months later. Also, a contract for the acquisition of lending platform BlockFi for up to $240 million is already in place.
FTX has also been negotiating the acquisition of Voyager Digital and Celsius Network, both of which declared bankruptcy in July.
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