The Huobi cryptocurrency exchange has witnessed a substantial outflow of $64 million over the past weekend. This drop continues the trend of decreasing total value locked (TVL) on the exchange, now at $2.5 billion, down from $3 billion just a month ago, as reported by DeFiLlama.
Adam Cochran, a prominent fintech executive, angel investor, and well-known crypto Twitter analyst, has recently drawn attention with a series of statements regarding Huobi’s apparent financial instability. He claimed that Binance, a global crypto titan, had started to bulk sell Tether (USDT), a top stablecoin.
Cochran proposed the explanation, “Why is Tether selling off? Likely due to Huobi’s insolvency.” He went on to note “weird balance shifts at Huobi” over the past month.
Connecting the Dots: From Huobi to Tron
Cochran related his observations to recent rumors about Huobi executives and Tron personnel, a blockchain platform led by crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun, facing police inquiries.
In a now-deleted tweet, Cochran listed the names of individuals he claimed were detained, including heads of human resources, server operations, product, and chain tech at Tron, all reporting to Tron CTO Marus Zhong.
Amid these developments, Cochran outlined his theory regarding Huobi’s assets.
“Across USDT and USDC combined, Huobi only holds $90M of assets,” he stated. Cochran further claimed that despite Huobi’s ‘Merkle Tree Audit’ indicating users had $630M of USDT, there was only $90M in reality.
Cochran conjectured that the unaccounted funds might be used to support yields of Tron, Poloniex, and other DeFi apps managed by Sun. However, even this hypothesis suggests that Sun only possesses about half of Huobi’s total obligations.
The Other Side: Huobi Responds
Reacting to Cochran’s claims, Huobi’s head of social media dismissed reports of police involvement as “pure rumors” on Twitter, and asserted normal operations at Huobi.
Cochran maintained his stance, revealing that his information came from “a senior executive at Tron with first-hand knowledge of the investigation.”
Meanwhile, Huobi has experienced other difficulties this year, including reducing its staff by 20% in January and an order to cease operations in Malaysia. Reports suggest that at least one C-level executive has left the exchange in recent weeks.
