- Huobi has denied that their COO Zhu Jiawei has been arrested, following rumors on social media
- There were suggestions that Jiawei was being spoken to by police, which had a slight impact on the market
- The Huobi platform has been unaffected, and the exchange has since labelled the rumors as false
Huobi has denied rumors that COO Zhu Jiawei has been arrested, which is said to have prompted a drop in the Bitcoin price yesterday. Rumors had been swirling around the crypto community that Jiawei had been taken into police custody in a move reminiscent of the ongoing police investigation into OKEx owner Star Xu, but Huobi has dismissed these as false.
Huobi Pulls the Plug on Rumors
Rumors of Zhu Jiawei’s arrest surfaced yesterday, with some Twitter accounts reporting that the Huobi man was being investigated by police regarding an unspecified matter thought to be linked to the ongoing investigation of Xu:
Breaking: Wu confirmed from multiple sources that Huobi COO Zhu Jiawei is under police investigation. He is the number two player in Huobi. Huobi is the exchange with the most Chinese users and the largest Bitcoin stock in the world. Li Lin, the founder of Huobi, is unknown. pic.twitter.com/MbOwLWxx6o
— Colin Wu（WuBlockchain） (@WuBlockchain) November 3, 2020
Few details were offered at the time and nothing concrete has emerged since, although the rumors alone have been enough to panic the market – Bitcoin dropped yesterday along with the Huobi Token.
Huobi, which is the biggest cryptocurrency exchange in China, acted quickly to quell the growing storm by issuing a denial on the matter:
Huobi Global Is Operating Normally
We have become aware of rumors within our community about the arrest of a Huobi senior executive by local officials. We can share with confidence that these rumors are false.
— Huobi (@HuobiGlobal) November 2, 2020
Attention Focuses Back on OKEx
With the Huobi rumors being labelled false by the exchange, the focus returns to OKEx. Founder Xu was taken into police custody on October 16, at which point deposits and withdrawals on the platform were suspended. This continues to be the case, as no further information has been forthcoming on the Xu situation, although by Chinese law he must be charged or released by November 17. If Xu is still in custody at that point, it can be assumed that charges have been brought against him.
Unlike with OKEx, deposits and withdrawals on Huobi were not suspended, with one observer noting on Twitter that Huobi had used the OKEx incident to create a contingency plan were anything like that ever to happen.
