Tracing the Links between Huobi and stUSDT

Founded in China in 2013, Huobi grew to become a major cryptocurrency exchange and went public in Hong Kong in 2018. As time went on, the exchange struggled to maintain its market share, leading to its founders selling their shares. By November 2022, just before a crypto market downturn, Sun acquired a controlling stake from founder Leon Li, according to a Bloomberg report.

At the time, Huobi had over $1.5 billion in USDT customer deposits. In an interview with The Block in October 2022, Sun denied having any stake in Huobi and referred to himself as an ‘advisor’ for the exchange. Since then, Huobi has changed their name to HTX and there has been a quiet yet significant transformation: the replacement of USDT funds with staked USDT (stUSDT), another stablecoin with ties to Justin Sun.