On the 9th of January, it was reported by the media site New1 in South Korea that the cryptocurrency exchange Huobi Korea is making plans to buy its shares from Huobi Global and change its name. Huobi Global is the parent company of Huobi Korea.
Around 72% of Huobi Korea's shares are held in ownership by Leon Li, who was also one of the co-founders of Huobi Global. Li's portion of the Korean company would be purchased by Cho Kook-bong, the chairman of Huobi Korea, who would then become the company's only shareholder.
Huobi has encountered a number of challenges over the course of the previous several days for a variety of different reasons.
It was reported that on January 6, following a loss of $6 million in income that week, it laid off 20% of its workforce.
In the most recent weeks, there has been a great deal of conjecture regarding the situation at Huobi Global.
It was one of the first partners for the city of Busan in its bid to become the blockchain city of South Korea, but it was dropped along with the four other worldwide partners before the end of the previous year. The city of Busan is working toward the aim of becoming the blockchain capital of South Korea. This transaction took place in October and involved Li selling Justin Sun his share of Huobi Global.
Huobi Korea was the country's second-largest exchange when it received accreditation from the Korea Internet and Security Agency in January 2021. This meant that it was only surpassed in size by the country's largest exchange.
According to the article that was published by News1, the Korean exchange's decision to take action was triggered by worries over the proof-of-reserves report that was supplied by the parent company in December. Huobi Global has reserves totaling more over $3 billion, but 43.3% of those reserves were held in the company's own self-issued token, called the Huobi Token.
Beginning in the month of November, Huobi Global made it known that they planned to relocate to the Seychelles, and on the 30th of that same month, they revealed that they would be forming a strategic alliance with Poloniex.
Image source: Shutterstock