Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) — US equity futures crept higher and European stocks rose as investors parsed comments from Federal Reserve officials for clues on the pace of interest rate hikes and assessed the impact of China’s widening Covid lockdowns. 

Contracts on the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100 gained about 0.2%. In US premarket trading, Zoom Video Communications Inc. fell after reporting slower sales and trimming its full-year revenue forecast. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index was buoyed by rallying energy stocks, with oil majors Shell Plc and BP Plc outperforming. 

The dollar weakened against all major currencies and Treasury yields declined. Crude oil prices rose after Saudi Arabia pushed back against reports of a potential OPEC+ production increase.

Fed officials have broadly maintained their steadfast stance to fight against inflation. Yet San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly also said that officials need to be mindful of the lags in the transmission of policy changes, while her Cleveland counterpart Loretta Mester said she’s open to slowing the tempo of rate hikes. 

“Markets get jittery whenever the Federal Reserve is due to speak or issue important information,” said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell. “With the central bank set to publish the minutes from its November meeting tomorrow, equity investors need to brace themselves for the Fed to say it is likely to keep raising rates to tame inflation, even though October’s consumer prices figure was below expectations.”

Meanwhile,  the OECD said the world’s central banks must continue to raise interest rates to fight soaring and pervasive inflation, even as the global economy sinks into a significant slowdown. The unexpected surge in prices and its impact on real incomes is hurting people everywhere, creating problems that will only worsen if policymakers fail to act, the Paris-based organization said.

In Asian trading on Tuesday, Hong Kong stocks slid as China’s daily virus infections climbed to near the highest on record. Covid-control restrictions now affect a fifth of China’s economy. Chinese stocks listed in the US fell in premarket New York trading.

Still, the eventual easing by China of its curbs to counter the virus are likely to mean that European profits will hold up relatively well because of the benefits to luxury and mining companies, according to strategists at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. 

The team led by Sharon Bell said earnings will probably only decline about 8% in 2023, a small drop compared with the 30% contraction seen in a typical recession. They had previously forecast a 10% decline in profits next year. 

Elsewhere on Tuesday, gold rose on the weaker dollar. Cryptocurrency prices were mixed, with investors braced for more ructions as further digital-asset sector bankruptcies loom following the demise of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX empire. 

Key events this week:

• US Richmond Fed manufacturing index, Tuesday
• OECD releases Economic Outlook, Tuesday
• Fed’s Loretta Mester and James Bullard speak, Tuesday
• S&P Global PMIs: US, Euro area, UK, Wednesday
• US MBA mortgage applications, durable goods, initial jobless claims, University of Michigan sentiment, new home sales, Wednesday
• Minutes of the Federal Reserve’s Nov. 1-2 meeting, Wednesday
• ECB publishes account of its October policy meeting, Thursday
• US stock and bond markets are closed for the Thanksgiving holiday, Thursday
• US stock and bond markets close early, Friday

Some of the main moves in markets:

Stocks

• Futures on the S&P 500 rose 0.2% as of 7:49 a.m. New York time
• Futures on the Nasdaq 100 rose 0.2%
• Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.2%
• The Stoxx Europe 600 rose 0.4%
• The MSCI World index rose 0.2%

Currencies

• The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.3%
• The euro rose 0.2% to $1.0262
• The British pound rose 0.5% to $1.1883
• The Japanese yen rose 0.6% to 141.29 per dollar

Cryptocurrencies

• Bitcoin rose 1% to $15,789.14
• Ether was little changed at $1,094.44

Bonds

• The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined three basis points to 3.80%
• Germany’s 10-year yield advanced one basis point to 2.01%
• Britain’s 10-year yield was little changed at 3.19%

Commodities

• West Texas Intermediate crude rose 1.5% to $81.25 a barrel
• Gold futures rose 0.5% to $1,763.20 an ounce

This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.

–With assistance from Tassia Sipahutar and Sagarika Jaisinghani.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.

(Bloomberg) — Africa’s largest clothing retailer is expanding rapidly in one of its newest segments — the sale of affordable mobile phones.

Pepkor Holdings Ltd.’s new chief executive officer, Pieter Erasmus, wants to build on the 12 million devices sold by the Cape Town-based company in the year through September — equivalent to 70% of the units offloaded on a pay-as-you-go basis in the whole South African market.

He sees the business as having high potential due to the number of the company’s customers that live and work in rural or unconnected parts of the continent, Erasmus said in an interview Tuesday.

“For our customers, mobile devices are the main source of communication and connectivity, so it’s a real need that we are able to serve,” said the CEO, who recently started his second tenure as Pepkor’s head. 

The retailer, which has more than 5,800 stores selling low-cost clothing including in some of South Africa’s smallest towns, is tapping into a pan-African boom in the use of phones for payment and banking services as well as communication. In more rural parts of the continent, transport and online access can be limited, Erasmus said. 

Pepkor sells the handset, the SIM card and offers the needed regulatory checks through both Pep and Ackermans stores. The company then gets revenue every time a customer uses that phone. With more people switching to smartphones, Erasmus expects the range of services used to increase. 

“These are big, fast trends and we are in a good position to participate,” the CEO said.

Pepkor’s Flash fintech business also offers informal traders an affordable and safe payment system and enables the company to earn money beyond regular store trading hours. The unit had 19% growth in operating profit in the year, with more than 2.5 billion rand ($145 million) a month of payments being done through informal traders. 

Pepkor earlier reported a 25% increase in annual net income. The company lost 313,000 trading hours due to rolling blackouts imposed by South Africa’s state-owned power utility Eskom Holdings Ltd., in line with other major companies.

 

 

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.

(Bloomberg) — Digital-asset brokerage Genesis is struggling to raise fresh cash for its lending unit, and it’s warning potential investors that it may need to file for bankruptcy if its efforts fail, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Genesis has spent the past several days seeking at least $1 billion in fresh capital, said the people, who asked not to be identified because discussions are private. That included talks over a potential investment from crypto exchange Binance, they said, but funding so far has failed to materialize.

The rush for funding was precipitated by a liquidity crunch at the lender after the sudden collapse of FTX, one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges. Genesis halted redemptions shortly after revealing on Nov. 10 that it had $175 million locked in an FTX trading account. 

“We have no plans to file bankruptcy imminently,” a representative for Genesis said in an emailed statement. “Our goal is to resolve the current situation consensually without the need for any bankruptcy filing. Genesis continues to have constructive conversations with creditors.”

A representative for Binance declined to comment.

Genesis has reached out to Apollo Global Management in a bid to secure an investment, but Apollo is unlikely to commit to a deal, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. One option proposed by Genesis was for Apollo to buy parts of its loan book, this person said. 

A spokesperson for Genesis didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on its interactions with Apollo. 

Other platforms are facing their own struggles as redemption requests roll in after FTX’s bankruptcy filing roiled the crypto sector and left investors on edge about the risk of contagion.

Read more: From Genesis to Gemini, How FTX’s Collapse Signals No One Is Safe

Genesis is a counterparty to many in the digital-asset space and is closely watched as a gauge of the industry’s strength. It’s among the crypto lenders that are feeling acute strain after a prolonged rout in virtual-coin prices amid multiple high-profile blowups.

The difficulties at Genesis have also buffeted the billionaire Winklevoss twins Tyler and Cameron, owners of the Gemini crypto exchange.

In response to Genesis suspending withdrawals, Gemini halted redemptions from its Earn product. That left in limbo a program that, according to a person familiar with the matter, has $700 million of customer money tied up in it.

–With assistance from Eliza Ronalds-Hannon, Annie Massa, Rachel Butt and Alyssa McDonald.

(Updates with Apollo unlikely to invest in sixth paragraph.)

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.

(Bloomberg) — Investors are piling into bearish cryptocurrency bets, wagering that the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto empire will further ravage one of this year’s worst-performing asset classes. 

Short-Ether and Bitcoin exchange-traded products dominated inflows into crypto ETPs in the past week, data compiled by Bloomberg show. At the same time, digital-asset ETPs’ total assets dropped to just under $22 billion, a two-year low. 

The flows indicate investors see no end in sight to the havoc brought on by the bankruptcy of Bankman-Fried’s FTX Group, which is already tearing through the sector. Crypto brokerage Genesis is warning potential investors that it might go bankrupt as well if it fails to raise emergency funding, Bloomberg News reported Monday. 

Read more: Crypto Firm Genesis Said to Warn of Bankruptcy Without Funds

The 21Shares Short Ethereum ETP saw the biggest weekly inflow among products tracked by Bloomberg at $14.2 million. The ETP has rallied 37% since just before FTX started buckling early this month amid revelations about its relationship with Bankman-Fried’s now-defunct trading house Alameda Research. 

Investment vehicles wagering on declines accounted for three-quarters of all weekly inflows into crypto ETPs, according to digital-asset manager CoinShares. The data suggests “aggregate sentiment was deeply negative for the asset class, likely being a direct result of the ongoing fallout from the FTX collapse,” James Butterfil, head of research at CoinShares, said in a note published Monday. 

The MVIS CryptoCompare Digital Assets 100 Index tracking the largest tokens has tumbled 66% this year. Bitcoin was trading at around $15,700 at 11:30 a.m. in London on Tuesday, while Ether hovered around $1,080.  

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.

(Bloomberg) — An FTX Group bankruptcy filing showed that the fallen cryptocurrency firm and a number of affiliates had a combined cash balance of $1.24 billion — more than debtors had identified a few days ago.

The new management of the collapsed exchange will be at a hearing in Delaware bankruptcy court for first-day motions today. You can follow Bloomberg’s TOPLive coverage here.

A string of high-profile crypto crises could set the industry back by almost a decade, according to the co-founder of Three Arrows Capital, whose June implosion was one of the largest hedge-fund trading busts.

Separately, crypto brokerage Genesis warned of the risk of bankruptcy amid contagion from FTX. The fall of other parts of Sam Bankman-Fried’s empire, including Alameda Research, is contributing to reduced liquidity in crypto markets. Bitcoin is trading below $16,000, near the lowest since November 2020.

Key stories and developments:

• Fallen Hedge Fund 3AC’s Founder Says FTX Set Crypto Back Years
• Crypto Firm Genesis Said to Warn of Bankruptcy Without New Funds
• Is Bitcoin Still Heading Into an Ice Age? (Podcast)
• US Prosecutors Opened Probe of FTX Months Before Its Collapse

(Time references are New York unless otherwise stated.)

Singapore Police Says Investigations Into Binance.com Ongoing (5:55 a.m.)

The Singapore police is investigating Binance.com over a possible breach of local payment services rules.

“Investigations are ongoing,” according to a statement from the police. The probe started when the nation’s financial regulator referred the case to the white-collar crime unit of the Singapore Police Force, the Monetary Authority of Singapore said a day earlier. 

Crypto Lender Sued for Blocking Withdrawals by Wealthy Investors (5:55 a.m.)

Cryptoasset lender, Nexo Capital, was sued in London by investors who allege they were blocked from withdrawing parts of their $126 million in assets from the exchange in March 2021, when one Bitcoin was worth more than $54,000.

Fallen Hedge Fund 3AC’s Founder Says FTX Set Crypto Back Years (4:47 a.m.)

High-profile crypto crises could set the industry back by almost a decade, according to the co-founder of Three Arrows Capital.

“Some industry leaders have said the FTX collapse set the industry back by five years,” Su Zhu said in a rare in-person interview in Abu Dhabi. “I think it’s even longer than that — seven or eight years — maybe even longer, if the underlying issues aren’t solved.”

FTX Group Bankruptcy Filing Shows Cash Balance of $1.24 Billion (1:30 p.m. HK)

An FTX bankruptcy filing showed that, as of Nov. 20, the exchange and a number of affiliates had a combined cash balance of $1.24 billion — more than the debtors identified last week.

The document from Alvarez & Marsal North America LLC, the proposed financial adviser to FTX, said trading house Alameda and related firms had a cash balance of almost $401 million.

Bahamas Agrees to Let Delaware Judge Handle Part of FTX Meltdown (8 a.m. HK)

Bahamas court officials dropped their opposition to moving one piece of FTX’s restructuring case to a US court in Delaware, according to a court filing.

Liquidators appointed in the Bahamas for one FTX affiliate agreed to move a case they filed in New York to Delaware, where more than 100 units are under the oversight of a federal judge, FTX lawyers said in papers filed in US Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware.

Tom Brady, Steph Curry Draw Texas’ Scrutiny Over FTX Plugs (7:15 a.m. HK)

A Texas regulator is scrutinizing payments received by celebrities to endorse FTX US, along with what disclosures were made and how accessible they were to retail investors

Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady and the Golden State Warriors’ Steph Curry are among the high-profile people being investigated.

Crypto Firm Genesis Said to Warn of Bankruptcy (6 a.m. HK)

Digital-asset brokerage Genesis is struggling to raise fresh cash for its lending unit, and it’s warning potential investors that it may need to file for bankruptcy if its efforts fail, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Genesis, which has faced a liquidity crunch in the wake of crypto exchange FTX’s bankruptcy filing this month, has spent the past several days seeking at least $1 billion in fresh capital, the people said.

US Prosecutors Opened Probe of FTX Months Before Its Collapse (4:14 p.m.)

Long before Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX cryptocurrency empire collapsed this month, it already was on the radar of federal prosecutors in Manhattan.

The US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, led by Damian Williams, spent several months working on a sweeping examination of crypto currency platforms with US and offshore arms and had started poking into FTX’s massive exchange operations, according to people familiar with the investigation.

Cathie Wood Goes on Coinbase Buying Spree as Wall Street Sours (12:21 p.m.)

Wall Street’s waning conviction in Coinbase Global Inc. has done little to deter Cathie Wood. Instead, she’s been scooping up shares of the struggling cryptocurrency exchange in the wake of the collapse of FTX.

Wood’s Ark Investment Management funds have bought more than 1.3 million shares of Coinbase since the start of November, worth about $56 million based on Monday’s trading price, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The shopping spree started just as FTX’s demise began.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.

(Bloomberg) — Alphabet Inc. and Apple Inc. face an in-depth probe from Britain’s antitrust watchdog after a study concluded they have the power to “exercise a stranglehold” over operating systems, app stores and web browsers on mobile devices.

The Competition and Markets Authority said Tuesday it’s opening a formal investigation into the duo’s dominance of the mobile browser market as well as potential curbs on the distribution of cloud gaming services through Apple’s App Store. 

The CMA’s escalation follows hard-hitting findings of a 356-page report into competition for mobile operating systems and apps, which concluded that Google and Apple had an effective duopoly and played a “gatekeeper role.” Responses to the study found support for a deeper review of the way Apple and Google dominate mobile browser market and how Apple restricts cloud gaming through its App Store.

“Many UK businesses and web developers tell us they feel that they are being held back by restrictions set by Apple and Google,” Sarah Cardell, the CMA’s interim chief executive officer, said in a statement on Tuesday. 

The CMA is currently waiting for the government to pass legislation which gives its new Digital Markets Unit the power to enforce more types of intervention. In his Autumn statement last week, UK Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said the government would be pushing this through as soon possible, following delays in getting it over the line. 

“When the new Digital Markets regime is in place, it’s likely to address these sorts of issues. In the meantime, we are using our existing powers to tackle problems,” Cardell said.

Apple said it will “continue to engage constructively” with the CMA “to explain how our approach promotes competition and choice, while ensuring consumers’ privacy and security are always protected.”

Google said that its Android operating system “gives people a greater choice of apps and app stores than any other mobile platform” and enables developers “to choose the browser engine they want, and has been the launchpad for millions of apps.”

Market investigations can take as long as 12 months and can lead to imposing strict remedies like restrictions or changes to companies behavior. 

 

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.

(Bloomberg) — France, Germany and Italy have agreed to work on the next generation of space launchers, seeking to overcome tensions between the countries that have clouded the prospects of the European initiative. 

The countries agreed to continue funding the Ariane 6 system, which has yet to undertake its first flight following delays and cost overruns, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, Germany Energy Minister Robert Habeck and Italy’s Industry Minister Adolfo Urso said at a conference for ESA in Paris. 

They also threw their support behind the light Vega C launcher, saying that space launches by public institutions should favor European companies as partners. The European Space Agency, which is dedicated to space exploration and groups together 22 European countries, will also work on micro and mini launchers, the ministers said in a joint statement.

The agreement comes as Paris and Berlin seek to defuse tensions that culminated in a ministerial summit being canceled last month. Still, issues remain at the industrial level. While Paris and Berlin have reported progress on a joint project to build a next-generation fighter jet, the chief executive officer of French manufacturer Dassault Aviation SA, Eric Trappier, has poured cold water on the announcement, saying that no agreement had been reached between Dassault and the German arm of Airbus SE regarding new studies.

How the work on launchers will be divvied up also remains unresolved. For the time being, the states involved are exploring “the conditions for the industrial and geographical distribution of work in exploitation,” according to the statement. France and Germany are the main contributors to the European Space Agency’s budget.

Berlin to Back French-Built Rockets in Race Against Musk

The emergence of Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp. has ramped up competition for Ariane, with the US firm’s reusable craft having a cost advantage over its rival’s expendable launchers. Still, the European-made rocket, which undertook its first mission in 1979, remains politically important in providing the European Union with an independent launch capability for satellites and space missions.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.

(Bloomberg) — Apollo Global Management Inc. is going to offer a new fund on a public blockchain as it expands its relationship with financial technology firm Figure.

Apollo and Hamilton Lane Inc. are launching investment vehicles using a platform on Figure. The groups are utilizing a blockchain technology known as Provenance, which serves as a ledger to issue and transact across private investments. 

The offering will be tied to Apollo’s digital asset strategy, Figure Chief Executive Officer Mike Cagney said. Hamilton Lane is tokenizing a so-called “40 Act” fund that focuses on private markets. 

“It’s the beginning of what we think will be a systemic trend of funds migrating onto the blockchain,” Cagney said in a telephone interview. “It’s not crypto. It’s using blockchain as it was intended as a way to disintermediate marketplaces.”

Apollo’s foray into digital assets includes working with Figure for purposes such as the origination and transfer of mortgage loans, and also for securitization. Apollo CEO Marc Rowan has said the Figure relationship would help reduce costs while providing more accessible data through blockchain technology. 

Apollo and Hamilton Lane join a number of firms using blockchain to scale work with investors. KKR & Co., another rival in private assets, said earlier this year it would be tokenizing an interest in a growth fund through the Avalanche public blockchain.  

Cagney explained that blockchain is helping the funds reduce costs tied to record-keeping of fund investors, while providing easier ways to issue capital calls and give money back to backers. He also said it enables the use of stablecoins to facilitate fund subscriptions and distributions. 

“This is using blockchain to reduce costs, improve efficiencies, and ultimately drive revenue,” Cagney said. “It increases the breadth and reach of the fund.”

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.

(Bloomberg) — The Singapore police is investigating Binance.com over a possible breach of local payment services rules.

“Police investigations are ongoing and we are unable to comment further,” according to a statement from the police in response to queries from Bloomberg News. The probe started when the nation’s financial regulator referred the case to the white-collar crime unit of the Singapore Police Force, the Monetary Authority of Singapore had said a day earlier. 

The police’s probe adds to troubles for Binance, which is also under regulatory investigation in the US on whether it broke securities rules. In the city-state, its Singapore affiliate last year dropped its application to run a crypto exchange, a few months after Binance.com was added to the MAS’s investor alert list.

Binance.com was “actively soliciting” users in Singapore to the extent of offering listings in the local currency among other incentives, the MAS said in its statement on Monday. The regulator was trying to explain its differing treatment of Binance.com and FTX, in the wake of FTX’s collapse that had drawn criticisms. 

“Binance takes compliance with the Singaporean laws very seriously,” a Binance spokesperson said in an email. “As a matter of policy we do not actively solicit Singapore users.” The spokesperson added that due to confidentiality obligations, the firm is unable to comment on the investigations. 

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.

(Bloomberg) — In the vexing world of cryptocurrencies, the seemingly simple question of who owns an exchange can turn out to be fiendishly tricky.

Take Huobi Global, a platform with Chinese roots that has faded from global leadership but still commands notable daily trading volume of over $300 million, according to tracker CoinGecko. Huobi Global said last month that co-founder and controlling shareholder Leon Li had sold his stake in the company to a buyout firm managed by About Capital Management HK Co.

People familiar with the matter, who asked not to not be identified discussing private information, said China-born crypto mogul Justin Sun spent about $1 billion to acquire the roughly 60% shareholding via the Hong Kong-based asset manager About Capital. Sequoia China and ZhenFund also sold their combined 28% stake in Huobi Global to About Capital, said the people.

According to the people, Sun kept his name out of the deal to avoid scrutiny from China, where crypto is mostly banned. Yet Sun has repeatedly denied any involvement in Huobi Global’s sale, while a Huobi Global spokesperson denied that Sun was the buyer. Sun’s official position at Huobi Global is as an adviser.

Calls to the contact number on About Capital’s website for comment weren’t returned, and there was no immediate response to emails to its general query address. Spokespeople for Sequoia China and ZhenFund declined to comment.

Sun’s involvement in the acquisition was first reported by online outlet Wu Blockchain.

The puzzle over Huobi Global’s ownership comes at a time when the murky slide into bankruptcy of Sam Bankman-Fried’s giant crypto exchange FTX has put a premium on transparency in the digital-asset sector. Huobi Global is among a slew of platforms that have vowed to disclose asset reserves to boost clarity about the status of depositor funds.

Tough Environment

“It’s tough in the current environment to have faith in centralized exchanges, let alone if their ownership structure is unclear,” said Wayne Zhao, a partner and analyst with research house TokenInsight.

Sun, 32, founded the Tron ecosystem, whose eponymously named native token is a top 20 virtual coin by market value. By his own account, Sun is worth more than $25 billion in Bitcoin, other crypto tokens, US dollars and Treasury bills.

He once donated almost $4.6 million to dine with Warren Buffett and suggested in a Bloomberg Television interview before FTX’s bankruptcy that Tron could help rescue the platform. In December he said he’s becoming a diplomat for the Caribbean nation of Grenada and had been resident there since 2019.

In his advisory role, Sun has laid out his vision for Huobi Global on Twitter, including establishing a stronghold in Asia — especially with the Chinese-language community — and prioritizing the exchange’s utility token HT. 

Volatile Token

He told followers in a Chinese-language tweet last month that “you can rest assured I won’t harvest you” until Huobi Global is a top-three exchange again. In Chinese crypto circles, newcomers to the space are referred to as “leeks” who get “harvested” by seasoned investors like Sun.

The price of the HT token more than doubled after Li’s share sale was announced on Oct. 8 but then plunged to levels that prevailed before the transaction, according to CoinGecko. Sun said in an October interview with Bloomberg Television that he owns “tens of millions” of HT tokens.

“Justin’s playbook is always about fan bases and the attention economy,” said Bowen Wang, co-founder of crypto venture firm Smrti Lab who’s known Sun since 2017. “When he gains enough attention, he will benefit from HT token appreciation.”

‘Fire Up’

Huobi Global unveiled new branding at a briefing in Singapore on Tuesday headlined by Sun. The English name will be shortened to “Huobi.” In the Chinese version, the name is changing to the same-sounding  “火必” — which roughly translates as “must fire up” — from “火币” or “fire coins.”

The people familiar said former controlling shareholder Li refrained from giving the new owner the right to use the original Chinese branding.

New executives have been named to lead departments such as finance, audit and human resources, including some that previously worked on Tron, according to an internal memo viewed by Bloomberg News. All business heads will report to Huobi Global’s advisory board, which includes Sun and a company co-founder.

A Huobi Global spokesperson said the rebranding aligns with a strategy of offering a gateway to the broader blockchain sphere, not just crypto trading. The spokesperson didn’t comment on the personnel changes.

–With assistance from Suvashree Ghosh.

(Updates with Huobi Global’s rebranding from the 15th paragraph.)

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.