Huobi Shuts Down Beijing Entity Amid Crypto Crackdown

The company said it's an old entity that isn't in use anymore.

By Eliza Gkritsi

Jul 27, 2021 at 7:56 a.m. UTC

Updated Sep 14, 2021 at 1:31 p.m. UTC

Eliza Gkritsi

Chinese crypto exchange Huobi is the latest crypto exchange to make changes to its corporate structure in China.

Huobi dissolved an entity called Beijing Huobi Tianxia Network Technology Co. Ltd. on July 22 and will deregister it in 45 days, a notice posted on China's national enterprise system said.
The dissolved entity was set up "in the early stages of development" and "has not had business operations," a company spokesperson told CoinDesk via WeChat.
Leon Li, the founder and CEO of Huobi, owns 70.52% of the entity, according to company information platform Aiqicha. Li is named as the contact person for any creditors wishing to file liquidation claims before the entity is deregistered.
The Chinese characters for Huobi appear to be censored on the company information platform, as they have been on social media since June.
The entity has 10 million yuan ($1.54 million) in registered capital and five subsidiaries in China, according to Aiqicha.
Chinese authorities have been cracking down on the local crypto mining industry. Other crypto fields appear to be hit as well, including exchanges and media platforms.
Huobi stopped offering leverage trading to users in China in late June.
In the same month, OKCoin's Beijing entity also filed for dissolution, and BTC China, one of China's oldest exchanges, announced it is shutting down crypto trading in the country.
Huobi Technology stock has fallen more than 15% since markets opened in Hong Kong today. Huobi Tech is an investment holding company that has some of the same shareholders, a CEO and some branding as Huobi Group, but the two are not formally affiliated. Huobi Group is the parent company of the exchange Huobi Global.

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