Rumours have been swirling about potential disarray within the ranks of Huobi, a multi-destination cryptocurrency exchange platform. This has been triggered by emerging reports over the weekend from financial media entities in Hong Kong suggesting the arrest of high-profile executives at the said company by Chinese police.
While it’s not out of the ordinary for the fast-paced cryptocurrency world to be rife with conjectures, these reports have nonetheless instigated alarm within the community, spurring massive withdrawals from the exchange. Nansen.ai data paints a stark picture, highlighting a significant 33% drop in Huobi’s stablecoin exchange balances over the last week, equivalent to traders withdrawing about $49 million worth of the stable currency.
The validity of these assertions remains a subject of enchanced rigour, as Huobi executives have firmly dismissed these accounts as mere conjecture. Meanwhile, it’s a fact to contend with that Huobi’s balance has dwindled in comparison to the 2021 commencing figures. DeFiLlama data shows the exchange’s balance tapering from $3.1 billion to approximately $2.5 billion right now, a decline that correlates in chronology with the surfacing reports.
Furthermore, the exchange’s largest holdings are reportedly linked to companies and protocols under the Justin Sun umbrella. Notably, TRX, TRON’s token, constitutes 26.5% of the exchange’s holdings, paired with 20.32% held in HT, Huobi’s own exchange token.
Despite facing dwindling balances, Huobi seems to still boast about $1 billion in highly liquid assets, with bitcoin making up the hefty sum of $886.92 million. It also holds around $48.27 million in USDT, and a substantially lower $5.41 million in USDC, per DeFi Llama’s data.
However, Huobi’s crypt-asset portfolio isn’t exclusively Bitcoin-bound as it holds $119.4 million in stETH along with a further $21.8 million in wETH. There’s clearly no monopoly of ether in their wallet, which flags an intriguing preference by the exchange.
Late last year, the well-informed CryptoQuant analytics firm cast an ominous shadow on Huobi when they flagged concerns about the quality of the company’s reserves. These concerns commingle with the current suspicions, prompting a closer inspection into the holistic health of the exchange. With the final resolutions to these qualms yet to be made, it’s safe to say, the world will watch with baited breath for the next turn of events.
Source: Coindesk
