Huobi Korea to Distance Itself from Global Parent Company and Rebrand

According to New1, a South Korean media source, cryptocurrency exchange platform, Huobi Korea, is planning to acquire shares from its parent company, Huobi Global, and rebrand.

Apparently, 72% of shares in Huobi Korea is controlled by one of the co-founders of Huobi Global, Leon Li.

The chairman of Huobi Korea, Cho Kook-bong, is set to take over Li's stake in the Korean branch of the company. He is also said to be the proprietor of a significant cryptocurrency mining operation in the nation.

As of recent, the company has faced several challenges, including the layoffs of 20% of its workforce on January 6th and $6 million outflow that week.

Speculations about issues at Huobi Global have been circulating for several weeks, it was one of the original collaborators for Busan in their plan to establish itself as the "blockchain city of South Korea", but it was eventually dropped along with the other four global partners towards the end of last year. Leon Li, sold his stake in Huobi Global to Justin Sun, in October.

It is important to note that as of January 2021, Huobi Korea was the second-biggest exchange in the country as it got certified by the Korea Internet and Security Agency. According to a report by News1, the Korean branch of the company took this step in response to concerns over the parent company's proof-of-reserves report that was released in December.

The report stated that Huobi Global had over $3 billion worth of reserves, but a significant portion (43.3%) of those reserves were in its own cryptocurrency, Huobi Token (HT). Huobi's HUSD stablecoin had a brief moment of deprecation in August.