Huobi shuts down Beijing entity amid crypto crackdown

Chinese crypto exchange Huobi is the latest crypto exchange to make changes to its corporate structure in China.

• Huobi dissolved an entity called Beijing Huobi Tianxia Network Technology Co., Ltd. on July 22 and will deregister it in 45 days, a notice posted on China's national enterprise system said.

• The dissolved entity was set up "in the early stages of development" and "has not had business operations," a company spokesperson told CoinDesk via WeChat.

• The founder and CEO of Huobi, Leon Li, owns 70.52% of the entity, according to company information platform Aiqicha. Li is named as the contact person for any creditors wishing to file liquidation claims before the entity is deregistered.

• The Chinese characters for Huobi appear to be censored on the company information platform, as they have been on social media since June.

• The entity has 10 million yuan ($1.54 million) in registered capital and five subsidiaries in China, according to Aiqicha.

• Chinese authorities have been cracking down hard on the local crypto mining industry. Other crypto fields appear to be hit as well, including exchanges and media platforms.

• Huobi stopped offering leverage trading to users in China in late June.

• In the same month, OKCoin's Beijing entity also filed for dissolution, and BTC (-1.87%) China, one of China's oldest exchanges, announced it is shutting down crypto trading in the country.

• Huobi Technology stock has fallen more than 15% since markets opened in Hong Kong today. Huobi Tech is an investment holding company, that shares some shareholders, a CEO, and some branding as Huobi Group, but the two are not formally affiliated. Huobi Group is the parent company of the exchange Huobi Global.