The world's largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, Binance, recently declined an offer to purchase Tron blockchain founder Justin Sun's ownership stake in competitor Huobi, according to an anonymous source familiar with the situation. Binance's disinterest in the deal reportedly stems from rumors surrounding Huobi's connections to mainland China, which Binance aims to avoid.
In a CoinDesk TV interview last month, Sun mentioned that Huobi is looking to secure a license in Hong Kong and establish a new exchange there called Huobi Hong Kong. However, the details of Sun's association with Huobi have been shrouded in mystery. In October last year, a company called About Capital acquired Huobi. Although Sun's representatives deny any connection with About, Huobi confirmed in January that Sun holds a leadership position within the company.
Binance is said to believe that Sun possesses a majority stake in Huobi. The proposal to Binance CEO Changpeng "CZ" Zhao was made by Sun within the past week, according to the source. Sun, however, refuted the claims in a tweet after the story broke, stating that he had not made any offer to Zhao regarding Huobi's purchase nor discussed the exchange in the previous week.
A Binance spokesperson said the company had no comment to share on the matter. Following the initial publication of this story, the price of Tron's TRX token fell to its lowest point in the past 24 hours, as indicated by CoinDesk data.
