Huobi Founder Li Lin Launches $1 Billion Ether Investment Trust Backed by Asia’s Crypto Elite

Li Lin, the founder of the Huobi exchange and chairman of Hong Kong-based Avenir Capital, is spearheading an ambitious $1 billion initiative to build one of Asia’s largest Ethereum-focused investment vehicles. The move, reported by Bloomberg, brings together a high-profile coalition of regional investors and crypto pioneers who aim to establish a new institutional foothold in the world’s second-largest blockchain network.

According to individuals familiar with the plan, Lin has joined forces with Fenbushi Capital co-founder Shen Bo, HashKey Group CEO Xiao Feng, and Meitu founder Cai Wensheng to create a digital asset trust designed to accumulate and manage large Ether holdings. The vehicle is expected to operate through a Nasdaq-listed shell company, offering a compliant and transparent framework for institutional exposure to Ethereum.

Avenir Capital, which manages over $1 billion in assets, has reportedly pledged $200 million to the project. An additional $200 million will come from regional backers including HongShan Capital Group, one of Asia’s most active venture firms. The full $1 billion target is anticipated to be reached through a mix of private capital and institutional partnerships, with a formal announcement expected within weeks.

Each of the project’s key backers brings deep ties to Ethereum’s early ecosystem. Fenbushi Capital, co-founded by Shen Bo, was among the first venture funds to support Ethereum’s launch in 2015, listing Vitalik Buterin as a co-founder. HashKey’s Xiao Feng recently collaborated with Buterin on the Ethereum Applications Guild, an initiative to accelerate decentralized application development. Meanwhile, Cai Wensheng’s Meitu became one of the earliest publicly listed companies to establish a crypto treasury, investing $40 million in Bitcoin and Ether in 2021 and maintaining a long-standing reputation as a crypto advocate since the 2018 market downturn.

For Li Lin, this new venture marks a strategic evolution from exchange operations to institutional asset management. After founding Huobi in 2013 and later selling it to Justin Sun, Lin has shifted his focus toward bridging traditional finance and blockchain-based capital markets. The Ether trust represents a significant bet on Ethereum’s future role as a programmable layer for on-chain financial infrastructure, particularly as institutions explore tokenized assets and decentralized treasury management.

Avenir Capital already holds a major presence in Bitcoin-linked products, including roughly 16.5 million shares of BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) as of August. By expanding into Ethereum, the firm is positioning itself to capture the next phase of institutional crypto adoption—one increasingly defined by smart contract utility, composability, and blockchain-native liquidity.

This latest initiative underscores a growing confidence among Asia’s financial elites in Ethereum’s long-term potential, not just as a speculative asset, but as a foundational layer for the next generation of digital finance.