Sam Bankman-Fried Denies Helping Justin Sun Purchase Huobi Global

• FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried denied reports that he helped Tron founder Justin Sun acquire crypto exchange Huobi Global. Reporter Wu Blockchain published the report alleging that Sun acquired the exchange.
• Wu Blockhain said that Justin Sun was a core investor in About Capital Management, which has a majority stake in Huobi Global.
• There have also been rumors earlier in the year that FTX was considering buying Huobi; Bankman-Fried denied the reports back then as well.

FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has denied helping TRON founder Justin Sun buy Huobi Global cryptocurrency exchange. Bankman-Fried tweeted the denial in response to a tweet by crypto reporter Wu Blockchain, who said that the “real buyer of Huobi is Tron Founder Justin Sun, possibly with the help of SBF.”

still not involved https://t.co/fiIyxTVEiq

Wu Blockchain had written a post on Substack alleging that Sun was a core investor and that “the controlling shareholder company has transferred all the shares of Huobi Global held by the fund of About Capital Management.” He also claimed that Sun was also at the delivery in Singapore on October 8 when the development took place. The deal was valued at $1 billion.

Wu Blockchain also said that Sun told him that he did not participate in the deal, but the former noted that Sun’s social media announced that he had become a global advisor to Huobi. Sun’s Twitter handle also points to the Huobi exchange.

As for why the deal took place, Wu Blockchain states,

“Why do this? People familiar with the matter said Li Lin was concerned that the Chinese government would be dissatisfied with the move, which in turn would affect his safety. Justin Sun may worry about drawing the ire of Binance, which has been supporting it.”

The reporter only says in passing that FTX may have invested to help Sun. He does not offer any more evidence regarding this.

FTX Rumored To Have Wanted Huobi Amid 2022 Shopping Spree

FTX was first rumored to be interested in purchasing Huobi in August 2022. Bankman-Fried denied this explicitly, with Bloomberg first reporting that Huobi Group founder Leon Li was looking to sell the company for $2 to $3 billion.

FTX and Bankman-Fried have been in the news for acquisitions on multiple occasions in 2022, with recent reports saying that the acquisition of Celsius Network’s assets was on the cards. There have also been suggestions that FTX was negotiating to buy Bithumb. Bankman-Fried also bought a 7.6% stake in the popular trading platform Robinhood, which sent the company’s stock soaring.

The exchange and its CEO’s actions have evoked contrasting reactions from the crypto community. Some have praised the desire to offer a lifeline to financially beleaguered companies. Others have criticized what they see as the desire to gain too much control in the market.

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