OKCoin Founder Buys Hong Kong-Listed Public Company For $60 Million

Mingxing “Star” Xu is the name of the founder of the crypto exchange OKCoin, who is featured in the latest news on our DC Forecasts crypto news site as becoming the largest individual shareholder of a public company listed in Hong Kong via a $60 million acquisition.

LEAP Holdings Group is the firm that was acquired. It is a construction engineering firm which announced the completed deal on Wednesday, where OKC Holdings Group (the company behind OKCoin) purchased about 3.2 billion shares for the company for HK$0.15 (around $0.02) each.

This makes OKC Holdings the largest shareholder of the LEAP Holdings now, owning 60.49% of its stock and having the same percentage of voting rights. Xu holds the majority stake in OKC Holdings with 52.32% ownership through two firms – StarXu Capital and OKEM Services Company.

OKC Holdings initially filed for the application with the HKEX on January 10th, aiming to buy the controlling stake in the LEAP Holdings Group in less than two weeks. The key takeaway from this (and from a crypto perspective) is that crypto exchanges are increasingly looking to opt for a reverse merger route and become publicly listed companies rather than aiming at becoming IPOs which is a lengthy and complex process.

OKC Holdings is not the first example for a case like this. Bithumb previously signed a binding letter of intent agreement with the US-listed investment firm Blockchain Industries for a reverse merger. Huobi also took a similar step, acquiring 66% of a HKEX-listed firm called Pantronics Holdings for around $70 million.