Huobi, who was at the helm for nine years, ended his era today
On October 8, the crypto trading platform Huobi Global announced that Huobi Global's controlling shareholder company had transferred all Huobi Global shares to a fund owned by Baiyu Capital, and the merger and acquisition fund under Baiyu Capital became the largest shareholder and actual controller of Huobi Global. The formal settlement of shares and business has now been completed. Officials stated that the deal only involves changes in controlling shareholders and will not affect the existing core management and operation team.
Just after the crypto trading platform Huobi Global completed the sale of shares and business to a fund owned by Hong Kong Baiyu Capital, the founder of HuobiLi LinIn a social media post, he stated that he is no longer the actual controller and shareholder of Huobi Global, and that he no longer has any authority. “Huobi has been an unforgettable experience for nine years since I started it.” Li Lin said.
Li Lin's complete departure also marks the end of Huobi's Li Lin era. In the history of cryptocurrencies, this 9-year-old trading platform has seen everything about Bitcoin in China. Old players should remember the crazy list of trading platforms from a few years ago, the big three fights, and the disputes between the founders on social media.
However, with the introduction of the policy, major officials announced that they would no longer provide services to the mainland region, the Web3 industry went overseas, the mining industry shut down to find a new place to belong, and the US completely occupied the Web3 highland. According to CoinGecko, currently Binance,Coinbase、FTXThe trading volume of platforms such as OKEx has surpassed Huobi. Now, even forBitcoinLi Lin, who had been struggling for nine years, also left.
A Brief History of Nine Years
Bitcoin actually had a relatively large population in the country. It was 2013. In just a few months of that year, the price of Bitcoin increased more than tenfold, and domestic and foreign media all competed to report it. At the time, the mainstream domestic platform was Bitcoin China, and the mainstream foreign platform was Mt.Gox.
However, Bitcoin China's service was not easy to use at the time. After trying to trade Bitcoin in China for a while, some users discovered that once the big market hit, Bitcoin China always went down. This gave Huobi, which had just been established at the time, an opportunity.
In 2013, several major trading platforms had their latest news interface (Source: Weibo user Little Friend Emperor)
In 2011, at a class reunion, Li Lin first learned about Bitcoin. Li Lin, who graduated from Tsinghua, had a technical background, and worked at the top Internet Oracle, returned home that night, inquired about relevant information and joined a Bitcoin-related discussion group. Obviously, he's interested in this product, which is different from mainstream currencies.
At the end of 2012, Li Lin, who had two less successful entrepreneurial experiences, also began looking for new opportunities. After learning about the pain points of Bitcoin trading platforms, Li Lin realized this opportunity. On September 1, 2013, Huobi was officially launched.
At the time, Huobi announced that it would waive transaction fees as soon as it went live, thereby attracting traffic and taking a seat. This may also be a last resort for new players. Giving up processing fee revenue and charging for value-added services also quickly gained momentum for Huobi. Since then, Huobi has been developing regularly, launching new projects and products, and steadily accumulating users.
In 2017, the industry “94” appeared. On September 4, seven ministries and commissions of the Central Committee issued the “Notice on Preventing Token Issuance and Financing Risks” to stop IC0 and characterize it as an illegal financial activity. All domestic virtual currency trading platforms were ordered to close for a limited period of time and stop new user registrations. Huobi had to announce the suspension of all user transactions to deal with the impact of the policy. Under heavy crackdowns, major trading platforms stopped domestic business one after another and went overseas to develop. At this stage, Huobi began its global layout, setting up sites in South Korea, Japan, the United States, Russia, etc.
However, attracted by huge profits, the “fugitive” trading platform came back soon after the crackdown on the limelight. In July 2018, the “Beijing News” survey found that five of the top ten trading platforms in the world have opened registration for Chinese users. In November 2017, Huobi released a monthly report stating a 2055% increase in new users.
In the following years, Huobi also followed trading platforms such as Binance and launched its own Token HT and IE0 services, and the trading platform entered the era of white blade warfare. Binance has not yet fully established itself in the Chinese market. Huobi and OKEx are looking for ways to maintain their own users. It is no exaggeration to say that this is a market era influenced by trading platforms. The market changed from bull to bear, and there was no innovation in the project. At a time when there was no hope in sight, a series of operations of the trading platform maintained user retention.
Platform Token and IE0. These products make all major platforms run their brains out in terms of operation. Every few days, there is a new project, and every once in a while, the platform Token has a new scenario. It must be said that those years were probably the most exciting time for trading platforms to fight.
Huobi Weibo (Picture from the Internet)
Also in the same period, Huobi, which had suffered from regulatory difficulties, began its own path of listing and compliance. In August 2018, Li Lin teamed up with former CDB executive Teng Rongsong to acquire 71.67% of Tongcheng Holdings at a price of HK$2.72 per share. Over the next two years, Huobi Universal, the controlling shareholder of Huobi Global, increased its stock holdings 8 times in a row and took absolute control of the company.
At the end of 2019, Huobi CFO Li Shufei revealed in an interview that he hopes to achieve the company's listing goals through mergers and acquisitions. After gradually integrating its business with listed companies, Huobi slowly came “under the sun” and became closer and closer to authority. Among Huobi executives, we often hear terms such as “helping the digital finance industry,” “targeting national applications,” and “serving the global market through blockchain technology.”
2021 was a turning point in the fate of Huobi and other domestic trading platforms, and Huobi, which recently embarked on the path of compliance, was even better taken by Huobi.
On October 26 of the previous year, there were rumors that Li Lin was taken away by the police, and the government came forward the next day to clarify. By November, Huobi's “No. 2 person” Zhu Jiawei was taken away by the police to assist in the investigation, and the platform Token HT plummeted in response.
On September 15 of the following year, China's Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security, the Banking Insurance Regulatory Commission, and the Bureau of Foreign Exchange jointly issued the “Notice on Further Preventing and Handling the Risk of Hype in Virtual Currency Transactions” to crack down on virtual currency transactions and hype, including trading platforms that provide virtual currency trading services to mainland users.
Subsequently, Huobi announced the complete removal of mainland users, and Li Lin even personally apologized to high-net-worth customers in the community. “Even without Huobi, everyone can choose Binance and OK.” According to Huobi Co-Founder Du Jun, removing mainland users caused Huobi to lose 30% of its profits. Since then, Huobi has gradually faded out of sight.
On August 12 of this year, Bloomberg News Huobi founder Li Lin was in negotiations with a group of investors to sell his shares in Huobi at a valuation of up to $3 billion. Officials said, “There is currently no plan to transfer the majority shareholders' shares, and the company is operating normally.” In less than two months, the equity settlement with Baiyu Capital was officially completed.
Today, the Li Lin era for crypto trading platform Huobi is over.
The next ten years
Every year in this industry, there are new wealth myths, new KOLs, and new hot spots. The only thing that can survive with Bitcoin is probably only a trading platform other than projects. Huobi has grown fast enough, but Binance is even crazier, standing at the top of the world in 3 years; however, Binance is afraid to slack off, followed by FTX, which has taken only two years to dominate the crowd.
Although Huobi still has problems like this, it is undeniable that this is a person who has experienced the industry from zero to one to ten. “After many years of trading at Huobi, I watched the circle form an industry from no one communicating with anyone to now”, this is the exclamation of an old crypto enthusiast. From the website to the app, Huobi's account has recorded the story of the industry for 9 years, and has also witnessed Huobi's development, from the simple exchange of several cryptocurrencies to the current huge ecosystem of products such as derivatives, nodes, and mining pools.
No one can judge the future shape of the trading platform. How much can public chains empower trading platforms? Can decentralized trading platforms replace centralization? Are cloud services just what you need? None of them knew. The only thing that is certain is that Huobi has left Li Lin, and there will also be Zhang Lin and Wang Lin. In the next wave, mainstream trading platforms will definitely not be absent, as many crypto netizens say: “There will also be new wealth stories born.”
