Huobi Global: Will the exchange’s latest move prove to be a blessing-in-disguise

Cryptocurrency trading exchange Huobi Global is all set to be acquired by Hong Kong-based About Capital Management. The announcement was shared by Huobi Global through a press release.

A major player in the Asian crypto market, Huobi Global had been seeking an M&A deal for some time now. The exchange however, decided to partner with About Capital, an asset management company in the Asia-Pacific region.

Furthermore, About Capital is expected to control a majority stake in Huobi Global. Additionally, Huobi Global will take on new global brand promotion and business expansion initiatives post the acquisition.

Seeking an acquisition post China’s crypto ban

Huobi was founded by Leon Li in 2013, with the group emerging as one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges over the course of time. Additionally, as per a Bloomberg report

published in August 2022, Li had been considering selling off his 60% stake for over $1 billion. Tron [TRX] and FTX [FTT] were two of the prospective acquirers.

However, Li closed the deal with About Capital. The terms of the deal with About Capital were not disclosed.

“Over the past nine years, we have witnessed Huobi’s ascendence into one of the largest virtual asset exchanges in the world. We believe the successful acquisition by About Capital vehicle will contribute to Huobi’s global expansion in both aspects,” said Li in a press statement.

A blessing in disguise for Huobi

Huobi Global performed exceedingly well during the crypto bloom of 2021 before China’s blanket ban on all crypto-related transactions. The group now handles a couple of crypto-related entities. These include crypto trading exchange Huobi Global, VC arm Huobi Ventures and a crypto cloud solution Huobi Cloud.

The development cast a positive spell on the price of Huobi Token (HT), the native cryptocurrency of the Huobi Global exchange. Over the past 24 hours, its value has surged 0.32% to $4.206 at the time of writing.