The value of HT, the native token of the Huobi cryptocurrency exchange, surged a staggering 79.4% over the week, nearly wiping off all losses it saw since the start of the year.
With a market cap of $955 million, Huobi’s token is currently the 52nd-largest crypto asset. HT rewards Huobi users for their loyalty with lowered transaction fees while also carrying its own value in tradable pairs against popular currencies.
According to CoinGecko, HT is presently trading at $7.45, which also represents a 63% rise in the last 30 days. On January 1, the token was trading at $9.37.
HT’s impressive price action comes amid reports that Justin Sun, the founder of the Tron network, revealed his new role as an advisor to the Huobi exchange and now owns “tens of millions” of its tokens.
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“I would see myself as one of the biggest holders,” Sun said in an interview with Bloomberg TV last week while stressing that he has not acquired a stake in the exchange.
Chinese reporter Colin Wu tweeted shortly after Sun's appearance on Bloomberg TV that Huobi’s official wallets transferred 74 million to wallets associated with the Tron founder.
The HT token has a max supply of 500 million tokens, with about 130 million being in circulation as of today.
74 million HT of Huobi’s two official wallets have been transferred to two new addresses on October 13, and the first transactions were from Justin Sun’s poloniex. The HT officially held by Huobi may be part of the acquisition of Huobi Exchange and has been handed over to Sun. https://t.co/O3SexjA8io
Sun described HT as the “core value” of Huobi, stressing that the token has to be “pushed hard” if the exchange wants to be one of the “most important” trading platforms in the world.
The Tron founder added that he wants to focus on Huobi’s global expansion and—if regulations allow—eventually to even take the exchange back into China, where it was based originally before leaving the country last year amid the wider crackdown on the crypto industry.
Earlier this month, Huobi’s founder Leon Li Lin sold off his stake in the company to About Capital, a Hong Kong-based asset management firm.
According to the company, the deal will see Huobi get a “sufficient” capital injection into its margin and risk provision fund, as well as a global strategic advisory board, joined by “leading industry figures.”
In August, reports emerged that Li Lin was looking to sell his majority stake in Huobi—reportedly at a valuation between $2 billion to $3 billion—with FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and Justin Sun reportedly holding “preliminary talks” on the potential deal.
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