After a three-year absence, Du Jun returned to Huobi. On October 21, Li Lin, the founder of Huobi Group, issued a letter to all employees. The news of the return of co-founder Du Jun spread throughout the industry. Seven years ago, Du Jun left Tencent and founded Huobi with Li Lin. In 2017, he left Huobi and shifted the focus of his work to the industry media Golden Finance and Investment Institution Node Capital that he founded successively. The latter invested in the blockchain technology service provider ChainUP and the new exchange force BiKi. project.
Du Jun’s return was promoted by Li Linsheng’s invitation. “We have invited Mr. Du Jun to return to Huobi several times and got his approval.” Li Lin said in a letter from all members.
While working at Huobi.com, Du Jun has always served as the CMO. Returning to the current Huobi Group, will he return to his old business? After all, this post has always been vacant.
In this regard, Du Jun told reporters that he wanted to get familiar with the internal situation first, and then find a suitable direction to do things.
As for the reason for returning to Huobi, he said that blockchain technology has been developed and recognized in China and the international community. Huobi is the earliest explorer and builder in this regard. “I hope to return to this collective and meet like-minded friends. Realize the ideal together.”
And Li Lin mentioned the long board of the old partner in the letter of all staff-Du Jun has worked and lived overseas for a long time, has a wealth of international vision and experience in operating enterprises in multiple countries. This also releases a message that Du Jun is likely to appear on Huobi’s overseas business expansion arena.
Du Jun returns to Huobi HT to rise slightly
At 8:30 a.m. on October 21, a letter from Huobi Group founder Li Lin spread throughout the industry. His old partner and Huobi co-founder Du Jun will return to “fully participate in the daily work of Huobi.” “. It has been 3 years since Du Jun stepped down as the CMO of Huobi. However, according to Li Lin’s internal letters, his partner has not been far away from Huobi and has been closely connected with each other. Du Jun has also repeatedly provided suggestions for Huobi. .
After the news that Du Jun returned to Huobi, HT also rose slightly that morning, rising from $4.33 to $4.48, an increase of 3%. At 5 pm on October 22, HT temporarily reported $4.51, an intraday increase of 0.14%.
Du Jun and Li Lin are partners in the world of crypto assets. In 2013, he left Tencent and founded Huobi with Li Lin as CMO. Prior to this, he joined Discuz Forum under Shengkang Creative in 2006. Since then, the project was acquired by Tencent. Du Jun joined Tencent as the head of Discuz product line and has accumulated rich operational experience.
When Li Lin started the Bitcoin trading platform Huobi.com, Du Jun recalled that he was not optimistic about the encrypted asset market at the beginning, and in the end “brotherhood” prevailed. However, the later development of Huobi proved Li Lin’s choice and made Du Jun’s brotherhood fruitful.
In September 2013, Huobi went online. In the initial stage, in order to gain market access, the website launched a fee-free model and quickly won a large number of users. In November, Huobi.com received millions of yuan from Zhen Fund and angel investor Dai Zhikang. In the same month, the single-day Bitcoin transaction volume of the website exceeded 1 billion yuan. In 2014, Huobi received the blessing of Sequoia Capital, a well-known investment institution during its Series A financing, and the amount of financing has reached the level of 10 million yuan.
Du Jun, who can play in the brand and market, is an old rival to He Yi, who was also the co-founder of OKCoin at the time. The market contest between the two has always been a hot topic in the two major Bitcoin trading platform markets.
On the eve of the 2017 Bitcoin bull market, Du Jun stepped down as the CMO of Huobi.com and successively founded the blockchain media Golden Finance and Investment Institution Node Capital. The latter voted for the blockchain technology service provider ChainUP and the 2019 dark horse exchange BiKi.
Du Jun always holds shares in Huobi, which is one of the reasons why he cannot completely leave Huobi.
In August 2018, Tongcheng Holdings, a listed company on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange acquired by Huobi, disclosed the equity structure of HuobiGlobal for the first time in an equity transfer announcement, of which Li Lin holds 66.44%; venture capital funds Sequoia China, Zhen Fund and Morningside China holds 16.32%, 5.22%, 1.63%; Chen Weixing, Dai Zhigang, and WongAntony hold 3.29%, 1.86%, and 0.99%, respectively; former Huobi executives Du Jun, Hu Donghai, Song Ying, and Yuan Dawei hold shares respectively 2.07%, 1.86%, 0.3%, 0.23%.
At that time, Du Jun had the highest shareholding among former executives.
It is not difficult to see from Li Lin’s letter from all the staff that his grand invitation was one of the driving forces for Du Jun’s return. “I have been very enthusiastic to invite Mr. Du Jun to return to Huobi several times and got his answer.”
Industry veterans return to eventful autumn
October of this year became an eventful period for large exchanges. First, the crypto asset futures trading platform BitMEX was sued in the United States at the beginning of the month; but now, the person in charge of the private key of the well-known trading platform OKEx cooperates with the public security investigation and the negative impact of the platform’s suspension of withdrawals is still continuing.
At this moment, why did Du Jun come back?
There is speculation from the outside that, in the context of global regulatory uncertainty, Du is making Huobi more overseas, or more decentralized, in preparation for some potential force majeure.
Du Jun told reporters that the main reason for his consideration of returning is that the influence of the blockchain industry is expanding, and his observations on the industry are consistent with Huobi’s philosophy.
He said that blockchain and digital finance are brand-new business formats. Although they are still in the early stages of development, they have already had a huge impact on the economy and finance of countries around the world, and have been developed and recognized in China and the international community. “In the past few years, I have discussed this topic with Li Lin many times. We all agree on many concepts. Huobi is the earliest explorer and builder in this area and has achieved certain gains in many countries. I hope Go back to this group and realize our ideals with like-minded friends.”
Before leaving Huobi, Du Jun was a CMO. Will he go back to his old business this time? After all, the CMO of Huobi Group has not appeared publicly, and this position may be vacant. The one who often speaks for Huobi in the market is Weng Xiaoqi, who became the CEO of Huobi Global in 2018.
Regarding the new position and work direction, Du Jun said that he must first familiarize himself with the internal situation, and then find a suitable direction to do things, “I have been away for a long time, and Huobi has developed rapidly in recent years.”
Huobi’s personnel changes this year hide the key points of the layout
Indeed, in the past few years since Du Jun left Huobi, the landscape of encrypted asset exchanges has changed dramatically. When he left Huobi in 2017, this huge change was brewing. At that time, the Bitcoin trading platform Huobi and OKCoin shared the market world. Until the “September 4” regulation came, the two platforms went overseas. Since both parties were born in mainland China, Chinese market users are still crowded. Binance, which was born that year, took the lead. When Huobi and OK cleared the assets of Chinese users, they opened up overseas markets within half a year by relying on the currency spot trading model.
Until 2019, emerging exchanges such as BiKi and MXC matcha emerged, and new players on the track entered the game, focusing on the market share previously held by the old players. Du Jun is both the witness and promoter of this great change. Dark Horse BiKi is the key project supported by Node Capital in 2019.
Although the spot trading share has been diversified, Binance and Huobi still account for the bulk. On October 22, Coingecko data showed that Binance’s 24-hour spot trading volume was US$3.92 billion, ranking first overall, and Huobi’s 24-hour spot trading volume was US$1.5 billion, ranking fifth overall. The spot transactions on the two platforms have always been regarded as strong players in the industry, one based on overseas, and the other in the Chinese-speaking market.
Huobi has always attached importance to the expansion of overseas markets, as can be seen from its continuous pursuit of compliance in some countries offshore. However, in 2019, Huobi was rumored to have withdrawn from the Singapore office, which was interpreted by the outside world as a disadvantage for overseas market expansion.
Du Jun’s return will undoubtedly help Huobi’s development in overseas markets. Li Lin also mentioned in the full letter that Du Jun has worked and lived overseas for a long time and has an international vision and experience in operating enterprises in multiple countries. It can be seen that he recognizes this longboard of the old partner.
In fact, the personnel changes of Huobi this year are more than that. At the beginning of the year, Huobi’s original CTO Cheng Xianfeng resigned, and Zhu Ye, a technical executive from Alibaba, took the post of CTO.
In the second half of the year, the DeFi market broke out, and Huobi established the DeFi Labs management fund. On August 3, Sharlyn Wu from CMB International joined Huobi as the chief investment officer, directly managing the fund.
A week later, Huobi’s former CFO Li Shufei, who has capital operation experience, resigned; on August 28, the new CFO Zhang Li plans to take office.
Huobi’s “Farewell to the old and welcome the new” at the senior management level has released a phased development direction. Blockchain technology, DeFi, and overseas markets are most likely to be the key layouts in the future. The return of Du Jun, a veteran of the industry, paved the way for Huobi to prepare for launch.
