On the first day back from the National Day holiday, a major event broke out in the currency circle. Huobi, one of the former three giants of domestic exchanges, has completed the sale of the controlling shareholder's shares. Huobi, which has gradually faded out of the sight of domestic investors after following my country’s clearance policy, has attracted everyone’s attention and discussion because of “selling one’s body”, which is embarrassing. Li Lin's search for a buyer and his desire to buy Huobi's equity began to circulate as early as last month. At that time, it was also rumored that SBF and Justin Sun were the intended buyers. It is reported that Li Lin's personal shareholding in Huobi accounts for more than 50%, and the rumored acquisition valuation is 3 billion US dollars. Based on this calculation, Li Lin's cash amount is close to 2 billion US dollars, which is really too much to spend in a few lifetimes.
Old friends in the currency circle should have an impression of the photos of Li Lin and Xu Mingxing shirtless grilling and drinking beer. The two once passionate teenagers have achieved wealth freedom and class leaps in the currency circle. Compared with Huobi, OKEx has been doing well since it was upgraded to Ouyi (OKX). Even because some Huobi users left to Ouyi, Ouyi became the well-deserved second child, second only to Binance in domestic users. No matter what the reason is, I wish Li Lin great talents from generation to generation, and I also hope that Huobi can regain its glory after changing hands.
So, what is the origin of the new owner, About Capital? Baiyu Capital is mysterious and low-key. On its official website, there are only brief founder information and the founder's investment philosophy: "How to build a successful and enduring business? I believe there is only one answer: that is to let every participant Feel happy and satisfied."
Baiyu Capital is a Hong Kong-based asset management company focusing on investing in the Asia-Pacific market. It was founded by Chen Yihua in 2013. Chen Yihua holds an MBA degree from the Australian Graduate School of Management, and has won the three-year Overseas Golden Bull Private Equity Investment Manager (stock long-short strategy) award. From 2004 to 2013, he was a partner of Jinglin Assets, a well-known domestic private equity firm.
According to the fund's monthly report, it can be known that Baiyu Capital is not a newcomer in the encryption industry. In the January 2021 monthly report, it was mentioned for the first time that the fund has carried out Bitcoin's encrypted asset allocation. In the April 2022 monthly report, the fund mentioned its views on the current encryption market: it is still firmly optimistic about cryptocurrency in the long run. As of August 2022, according to the fund allocation of Baiyu, the proportion of encrypted assets is 3.6%, and its peak proportion is close to 10%.
Interestingly, if calculated according to public information, Baiyu’s asset management scale is 100-200 million US dollars, and the acquisition of Huobi’s shares requires at least billions of funds. How did this acquisition be completed? The valuation of Binance is 50 billion U.S. dollars, and it is not an exaggeration for Huobi to give a valuation of 3 billion. If this is the case, then there must be a big boss behind Baiyu Capital. There are rumors that the gold master behind it is Jinglin Capital . It is reported that the previous merger of Meituan and Dianping was completed by the actual controller of the fund.
After retiring mainland users, Huobi has gradually declined. The biggest problem is that Huobi's largest user group is domestic users, and it is not easy to develop overseas markets. This change of ownership of Hong Kong capital is both a last resort and perhaps the best choice for Huobi. It’s just that under the premise of losing mainland users, whether the new owner will actively explore overseas markets, or continue to allow domestic users to trade like Binance and Ouyi, in my opinion will affect the final fate. After all, Huobi’s domestic brand The degree is still very high.
We know that due to policy restrictions, it is difficult for Chinese people to participate in crypto market transactions, especially for newcomers. The threshold for participation is very high. Identity verification and deposits keep many people out, and only some old leeks can freely participate in transactions. For Huobi, if they refuse to participate in the transaction with a mainland identity, both old and new users will continue to choose Ouyi and Binance, because these two exchanges allow mainland users to participate by default, but for registration and deposit, you need to find an old one. Leek to understand the skills and precautions. Therefore, in my opinion, even if Huobi finds a big owner, it will be difficult to change the fate of decline.
