Huobi Withdraws Steem Votes, Admits to Mobilizing Customer Funds

Four former witnesses have been voted back onto the council of 20 nodes that underpin the Steem blockchain.

Their reinstitution follows the withdrawal of votes from major exchanges Binance and Huobi in support of what has been described in an attempted takeover of the network.

"From time to time, Huobi stakes user holdings to help block malicious activities and attacks on blockchain networks. Prior to this particular event, Steemit and Tron had reached out to seek our support."

Huobi claims to have been told by Sun that the Steem network "Was at immediate risk of an attack" that would directly impact the exchange's clients' assets.

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao also announced that Binance had removed its votes on March 3, claiming it had merely sought to support an upgrade that the exchange had been made aware of.

Steemit's uses a proof-of-stake protocol - where a small number of "Witnesses" are elected by STEEM holders to validate transactions and secure its network.

Votes are allocated according to the number of tokens that an individual holds.

On Monday, following over two weeks of escalating tensions between Sun and the Steem community, Huobi, Binance, and Poloniex mobilized their customers' STEEM deposits to vote alongside Sun to remove the network's previous witnesses.

On Feb. 14, Steemit announced it would migrate from its native blockchain to the Tron network, following the sale of Steemit Inc - a decentralized blogging platform hosted on the Steem blockchain, to Tron founder Justin Sun.

In acquiring the company, Sun took ownership of approximately 65 million STEEM tokens.