Tron founder Justin Sun has called for empowering the exchange’s token as the Huobi Token surged by 75% on Thursday, 13 October. Huobi Token (HT) is the native token of Huobi Global, a China-based crypto exchange.
Founded in 2013, Huobi Global had a very turbulent year in 2021 following China’s decision to ban crypto. The move saw many users abandon the exchange in pursuit of greener pastures. The consequences of this move extended to early 2022 when Huobi exchange contemplated a 30% staff reduction, allegedly. This was in efforts to manage revenue losses after the China crypto repression.
The new turn of events comes barely one week after Huobi Token recorded a 21-month low, sending the exchange’s token holders on a selling spree. With the 75% surge, HT price rallied to record a four-month high of $7.60. According to data sourced from the charting platform TradingView, the ascension started on Monday, going up by more than 70% for the previously bargain-hunted coin.
HT is central to Huobi’s success
In light of the ongoing crypto winter and the looming uncertainty within the macroeconomic environment, the performance displayed by Huobi Token is rather impressive and has put HT in the spotlight as the best-performing cryptocurrency, with more than $1 billion in market capitalization for the past seven days.
According to reports, HT has detached from the rest of the crypto market, taking a trajectory that appears to be optimism-inspired. The project officials expect it to play an enabling role in revitalizing the Huobi exchange. Citing Tron founder Justin Sun on a Monday tweet:
“We know that the key to revitalizing Huobi is to empower HT, and HT can only thrive on Huobi.”
The Twitter post followed an announcement by the Tron executive disclosing that he was a Huobi network’s global advisory board member. Justin also revealed plans by the company, noting ‘big moves around HT, including brand upgrade, heavy empowerment, and business cooperation.’
On Tuesday, 11 October, Justin Sun was featured on CoinDesk’s “First Mover” show. As part of his revelations during the appearance, Justin articulated that the Huobi Token is central to Huobi’s success. The Tron founder supported his claim by drawing similarities with Binance coins (BNB), stating that BNB plays a crucial role in setting Binance on the pedestal as the top crypto exchange. He said:
“The success of BNB benefits the Binance platform. So, in terms of operations, we need to focus on HT.”
HT token is riding on new wings
The success of the HT token is not limited to the optimism that the network’s futuristic plan has inspired. Experts have also attributed the gains to the “change of management and fresh capital infusion.” On Friday, 7 October 2022, Huobi exchange declared plans to sell all of its shares to About Capital Management, the Hong Kong-based asset manager.
Confident about the exchange’s prospects, an official announcement from the company states:
“Under new ownership, the exchange is plotting an international expansion and will receive an injection of sufficient capital in margin and risk provision fund.”
The news comes after months of speculation that founder Leon Li was planning to sell his 60% stake in Huobi exchange for at least $1 billion.
About Capital Management CEO Ted Chen recognizes that the Huobi exchange is still in its infancy stages, noting “tremendous room for growth.” In his opinion, the Huobi acquisition is a significant milestone in the crypto industry.
While the $7.60 represents a significant gain, HT’s price remains 81.77% less than its historical all-time high (ATH) recorded in May 2021.
At the time of this writing, HT price is $7.40 on CoinGecko, up by 2.5% over the last 24 hours. CoinGecko also recognizes Huobi as the world’s eighth-largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volumes at press time.
