Li Lin, founder of Huobi and chairman of Hong Kong-based Avenir Capital, heads a new $1 billion ether. trust along with several of Asia’s most influential early Ethereum investors, according to Bloomberg.
The report, citing people familiar with the matter, claims that Li has teamed up with Fenbushi Capital co-founder Shen Bo, HashKey group CEO Xiao Feng, and Meitu founder Cai Wensheng to form a digital asset trust designed to accumulate and hold Ether.
The company reportedly includes talks to acquire a Nasdaq-listed company to structure the vehicle and has already secured approximately $1 billion in commitments.
That includes about $200 million from Li’s Avenir Capital and $500 million from regional institutional players such as HongShan Capital Group, the sources said. Talks are continuing and a formal announcement is expected in the coming weeks.
The move comes as digital asset managers look to capture institutional interest in ether following the success of US Bitcoin exchange-traded funds.
Li founded Huobi in 2013 and sold the exchange to entrepreneur Justin Sun after China’s cryptocurrency trading ban in 2021. Since then, his Hong Kong-based Avenir Capital has become one of Asia’s largest Bitcoin ETF holders, managing more than $1 billion in assets.
CoinGecko data shows 14 publicly traded ether treasury companies with combined holdings of 4,434,707 ETH ($16.9 billion), the largest being Tom Lee’s BitMine (BMNR.US), which holds over $11 billion in ether.
