Huobi sale marred by $30 million-dollar “hole,” Justin Sun claims

HTX shareholder Justin Sun has claimed that there were irregularities in the sale of co-founder Li Lin’s share of the cryptocurrency exchange. HTX was formerly known as Huobi. The disclosure came in the middle of a string of posts on X touting the Decentralized USD (USDD), a stablecoin backed by subsidies of Sun’s Tron platform.

In one of the posts, Sun says (translated from Chinese) that “even if Li Lin uses it, he can leave unscathed; USDD will give him every penny of the interest!” In the post, Sun continues by saying Li “concealed due diligence materials, creating a $30 million hole internally.” Furthermore:

“I discovered it, exposed it, and after being exposed, he [Li] tried to weasel out of it and didn’t pay a cent.”

Sun ended up lending the company money to cover the loss. “Fortunately, I had money back then,” he concluded.

Sun has been posting heavily about USDD as Tron plans to issue a new version of USDD — USDD 2.0 — that will offer 20% APY on staking.

Sun and Li’s numerous issues

This is not the first issue that has arisen with the October 2022 sale of Li’s share in Huobi. In May 2023, Sun alleged that Li’s brother Li Wei obtained a large quantity of Huobi’s native HT token at no cost “through improper means” in a now-deleted X post. Sun promised to recover and destroy Li Wei’s HT, despite also claiming that Lin Wei sold the token.

In June 2023, Li Lin filed suit against Huobi Global in Hong Kong, claiming his X-Spot company. Li Lin alleged that his company owned the rights to the Huobi trademark, despite the sale of his shares.

According to Bloomberg, Li Lin went on to co-found New Huo Technology Holdings digital asset service platform. Harvard has called him the 39th most generous philanthropist in China.

Justin Sun stays busy with finance and art

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued Sun in March 2023 for the sale of purported crypto securities. Sun has invested over $30 million in World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency venture backed by U.S. President Donald Trump and his family, where he already served as an adviser.

Sun is probably best known to the public for his purchase for $6.2 million of a conceptual artwork that consisted of a banana taped to wall. He went on to eat the banana.

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