The blockchain journalist Colin Wu took it to Twitter to inform that Lin has decided to liquidate his majority stake in the cryptocurrency exchange, indicating that he “currently holds more than 50% of the shares.”
Huobi is one of the largest digital asset trading platforms and was well-positioned within the top three in terms of volume and user base until recently. With over $1 billion in profits last year, Wu said that Huobi was the second-most profitable exchange.
However, last year, the firm experienced severe drawbacks during the Chinese clampdown forced it to close down, which harmed its revenue massively.
The market-wide corrections of the past eight months have not helped either. As previously reported, Huobi said it will lay off a significant portion of its employees, joining other crypto exchanges, such as Coinbase, CryptoCom, Bybit, and etc.
After Lin, the second-largest shareholder is Sequoia’s Chinese branch, according to Wu.
The crypto community started speculating on who could step up and acquire Lin’s stake in Huobi, shortly following Wu’s report on Twitter. Given the recent shopping spree initiated by Sam Bankman-Fried and his company FTX, many predicted that they will be the first to opt in.