Leon Li

Leon Li — whose Chinese name is Li Lin — is a Chinese entrepreneur born around 1989 who founded Huobi in 2013, establishing it as one of the dominant cryptocurrency exchanges in China alongside OKCoin and BTCC. Li studied at Tsinghua University and worked briefly in the Chinese tech industry before discovering Bitcoin and recognising that the rapidly growing Chinese retail interest in cryptocurrency required professional exchange infrastructure.

Huobi launched with a simple model: a spot Bitcoin trading platform with yuan on-ramps, competitive fees, and a reputation for reliability. At its peak, Huobi was handling a substantial fraction of global Bitcoin trading volume, driven by the enormous depth of Chinese retail market interest in cryptocurrency during the 2013–2017 bull market period.

Chinese crypto regulation created repeated existential crises for Huobi, OKCoin, and their peers. In September 2017, the People's Bank of China declared ICOs illegal and effectively banned Chinese trading of cryptocurrency on domestic exchanges — forcing Huobi and its competitors to either shut down Chinese operations or restructure offshore. Huobi relocated key operations to Singapore and other jurisdictions while continuing to serve Chinese users through technical workarounds until the comprehensive ban of September 2021 made further access effectively impossible.

These regulatory challenges forced Huobi to become genuinely global rather than simply China-focused. The exchange established licensed operations in multiple jurisdictions, including the Seychelles, Singapore, and later the Cayman Islands, while building products for markets in Southeast Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. The Huobi Token (HT) and Huobi Eco Chain (HECO) — an EVM-compatible sidechain launched in 2020 — extended the Huobi ecosystem into DeFi.

In 2022, Li sold a majority stake in Huobi Group to About Capital Management — an investment firm based in Hong Kong — in a deal that valued the exchange at approximately $3 billion. The sale represented Li's exit from day-to-day control of the company he had built from scratch over nearly a decade. About Capital subsequently brought in Justin Sun (founder of the Tron blockchain) as an advisor, a development that generated significant attention and some concern given Sun's controversial reputation in the crypto industry.

In 2023, Huobi rebranded to HTX — reportedly standing for 'Huobi Tron Exchange' by some accounts, though the company described it as a homage to the Huobi brand while reflecting its new ownership direction. The rebranding coincided with significant organisational changes and continued uncertainty about HTX's direction under its new ownership structure.

Li's legacy at Huobi/HTX is that of a pioneering builder of Chinese crypto exchange infrastructure who served tens of millions of users through multiple market cycles, navigated existential regulatory pressure, and built one of the most significant exchange franchises in the industry's history before selling at what proved to be close to the peak valuation.

At its peak, Huobi was the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume — a position it held during the 2017 and 2020–2021 bull markets when Chinese retail participation in crypto was at its highest. For many Chinese investors, Huobi was the first and primary interface with the cryptocurrency markets, making Li's founding of the exchange consequential not just in business terms but in terms of the millions of people whose first crypto experience was through the platform he built.