The digital world was rocked on Thursday as HT, the native token of Huobi Exchange crashed by over 90%, momentarily dropping from $4.6 to $0.31 in just 10 minutes. Despite the price since recovering, the token was trading at $3.81, 21% down in the past 24 hours at press time. Huobi users were sent into a panic, but why was the token making a sudden plunge?

Transaction data from Kaiko’s research analyst, Riyad Carey, revealed that more than $2 million HT tokens were sold on Huobi in the minutes leading up to the crash. Although it was initially thought to be an accident, it soon came to light that Justin Sun, the founder of Tron, and largest holder of HT tokens, was behind the sale. Furthermore, he moved $60 million in USDT from Huobi to Aave.

Commenting on the spontaneous price plunge Justin Sun said: “Few users triggering a cascade of forced liquidations in the spot and HT contract markets… We will continue to improve the liquidity depth of main cryptocurrencies and HT token, strengthen leverage risk warnings and liquidity capabilities.” Sun also dismissed the price drop as a normal market occurrence and assured the Huobi community that Huobi operations are safe.

As a sign of restitution, Justin Sun has now put together a $100 million liquidity fund for those impacted by the leveraged liquidation, which he has transferred to Huobi in USDC stablecoin. Whether this will be enough to keep users happy remains to be seen.

Key Points:

  • HT price momentarily dropped from $4.6 to $0.31
  • Tron’s founder Justin Sun is the largest holder of HT tokens.
  • $2 million HT tokens were sold on Huobi prior to the crash.
  • Justin Sun has now put together a $100 million liquidity fund for those impacted by the leveraged liquidation.
  • Tron’s token, TRX price dropped by 12% from $0.057 to $0.066.

TL;DR

On Thursday, HT, the native token of Huobi Exchange, dropped from $4.6 to $0.31. As it turns out, Justin Sun, the founder of Tron and largest holder of HT tokens, was behind the sale and moved $60 million in USDT from Huobi to Aave. To help those impacted, Sun set up a $100 million liquidity fund, and the token has since recovered.