By Krystal Hu
(Reuters) -FTX Chief Executive Sam Bankman-Fried said in a tweet on Monday that the crypto exchange has no plans to buy China-based Huobi, which also runs one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges.
Huobi founder Leon Li was exploring a stake sale in the company, people familiar with the matter told Reuters earlier this month.
A sale for Li’s almost 60% stake would value Huobi between $2 billion and $3 billion, and could be completed as soon as this month, Bloomberg News reported earlier in August.
The cryptocurrency industry has seen sharp declines this year amid a broader risk-off sentiment in the markets due to geopolitical turmoil, aggressive monetary policy tightening and decades-high inflation.
Bankman-Fried in recent months has thrown lifelines to several digital asset platforms, including cryptocurrency lenders BlockFi and Voyager Digital. (https://bit.ly/3TorlM6)
In July, Bankman-Fried said he and his company still have a “few billion” on hand to shore up struggling firms that could further destabilize the digital asset industry, but that the worst of the liquidity crunch has likely passed.
(Reporting by Manya Saini in Bengaluru and Krystal Hu in New York; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)
