Sam Bankman-Fried & Justin Sun to Buy Majority of Huobi Global Exchange?

Leon Li, the founder of , is in talks with investors for selling his majority stakes in the crypto-exchange with a valuation of more than $3 billion, as reported by Bloomberg.

It is estimated that this could be one of the biggest deals ever in the crypto industry since the $2 trillion crypto rout began. According to coingecko coingecko - hello@coingecko.com Data aggregator , Huobi is one of the largest crypto exchanges with a daily trade volume of over $1 billion. 

Li is seeking to sell roughly 60 percent of the company and has held preliminary talks with tron tron - service@tron.network Blockchain Network founder Justin Sun Justin Sun Justin Sun is a well-known figure in the cryptocurrency industry, an entrepreneur, and a former diplomat. He established the Tron blockchain DAO system and rose to prominence in the cryptocurrency space as a result of his work. As a diplomat, he represented Grenada permanently at the WTO in Geneva.   Quick Facts   Full Name Justin Sun Birth 30-07-1990 in Xining, Qinghai, China Nationality Chinese, Grenadian Education Peking University, University of Pennsylvania Marital Status Unmarried as of 2025 Net Worth $2B estimated   Additionally, Justin mentors BitTorrent, Animoca, Poloniex, and other blockchain projects. He was in the news recently due to the standoff with the US SEC charges, and a meal with Warren Buffett has made headlines.   Justin Sun - Career Highlights   2017: Founded TRON to revolutionize decentralized content sharing and blockchain scalability. 2018: Acquired BitTorrent to integrate decentralized file sharing into the TRON ecosystem. 2018: Launched TRON’s main net, offering a high-speed, scalable blockchain for digital assets. 2018: Achieved record-breaking TRX token sales, fueling mass crypto adoption globally. 2019: Forged strategic global partnerships to expand TRON's decentralized ecosystem. 2020: Advanced TRON’s role in decentralized finance (DeFi) with innovative blockchain projects. 2021: Earned media recognition in Forbes and Bloomberg as a visionary in the crypto space. 2022: Expanded TRON’s ecosystem with new DeFi, NFT, and Web3 initiatives. 2023: Pushed forward groundbreaking Web3 and NFT projects, cementing TRON's industry leadership.   In November 2024, Justin Sun contributed $30 million to World Liberty Financial (WLF), a cryptocurrency venture backed by the Trump family. He intervened when the project seemed to be having issues raising the money it needed, putting the Trump family at risk of receiving a payoff. EntrepreneurInvestorCrypto and Blockchain ExpertChief Executive Officer and FTX founder , the report stated, citing people familiar with the matter. 

The existing investors of the company including ZhenFund and Sequoia China were informed about Li’s decision during the July shareholders’ meeting. It is estimated that the deal might be concluded by the end of this month. Li is seeking a valuation of $2 billion – $3 billion, implying the stake sale could fetch upwards of $1 billion. 

If concluded it will be one of the biggest deals in the crypto industry, keeping in mind the “crypto winter”. With the crypto market spiraling down, many big firms were forced to cut costs and jobs, whereas this will be the first instance where a majority stake will be sold by one of the biggest crypto firms. 

Huobi was one of the most active bitcoin org bitcoin org - Event OrganiserTechnologyPayment solution  trading platforms on the globe, but it had to retreat from China which was once its biggest user base and revenue source. After Beijing declared crypto-transactions illegal last year, Li’s company stopped providing services to Chinese users. 

Huobi has roughly handled $1.12 billion of crypto transactions over the 24 hrs to August 12, a little more than half of the trades hosted by Coinbase Global Inc., according to CoinGecko. 

After bloomberg bloomberg - MediaConglomerate company report was published, Huobi’s native token HT saw an increase of 25 percent to $5.43, hitting a high of $5.80 at one point.