By George Ward
Justin Sun responded to recent reports that he plans to negotiate with buyers to sell his stake in Huobi Global. The Tron creator took to his official Twitter handle to deny the move calling it an April 1 prank.
Is Justin Sun About To Sell His Huobi Stakes?
A recent publication by a popular news media outlet claimed that Justin Sun has been holding meetings with potential buyers as he plans to sell his recently acquired stake in Huobi Global exchange. Sun became the majority shareholder of the troubled crypto trading platform in the fall of 2022, with news indicating that the Tron founder intends to sell his stakes to raise funds.
Sources familiar with the new development noted that the exact valuation for Huobi that Sun wanted is still unknown. The report stated that even though the Tron founder claimed not to have a single crypto exchange stock, he reportedly injected as much as $200 million of his funds to support the company in 2023.
In November 2022, Sun sank $1 billion to purchase a controlling stake at Huobi Global, which he has since denied. Thus, observers noted that the connection between the Tron creator and Huobi remains a mystery.
Huobi Global is the oldest crypto exchange, established a decade ago in China. Its market shares tumbled from 22% to 4% in 2020. Following a blanket ban on crypto trading on September 2021, Huobi moved its operations from China to Singapore and has continued to play a critical role in promoting crypto adoption.
An April 1 Rumor?
According to Sun, the speculations about his intentions to sell his Huobi stakes to raise funds is an April 1 prank he appreciates. In the tweet, Sun reassured traders on Huobi that the exchange will continue to provide an all-around and secure condition for their activities.
In another development, Sun tweeted last Friday that his tenure as Grenada’s ambassador to the World Trade Organization (WTO) has ended. The founder shared his next plan with the Tron community on Twitter.
According to him, after handing over his role to a successor, he will veer into public service with a specific focus on crypto regulations and the digital economy. He believes that these two areas are critical to the future of commerce and development.
Meanwhile, all these took place amid the ongoing lawsuit the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed against Sun. The SEC has filed a charge against the Tron founder, alleging that he and three other affiliated companies have illegally sold a significant amount of Tron native token, TRX, and BitTorrent, BTT assets.
Accordingly, the news of the lawsuit has impacted the price of TRX, with the token’s value dropping 6.1% at the time of the announcement. Since the start of the year, the regulator has embarked on an aggressive crackdown on crypto exchanges and their subsidiaries to enforce compliance with regulations.
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