 
 
Li Lin, the founder of cryptocurrency exchange Huobi and chairman of Hong Kong-based investment company Avenir Capital, is leading efforts to raise $1 billion as part of a strategy to invest in Ethereum (ETH), as per Bloomberg.
The Friday report, which cites anonymous sources privy to the matter, claims that 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 Ether via a Nasdaq-listed shell company.
Lin’s Avenir, which manages over $1 billion in assets, has reportedly pledged $200 million for the venture, with $200 million in additional commitment coming from regional investors like HongShan Capital Group.
With the support of the Ethereum backers, the team plans to make the official launch announcement within the next two to three weeks.
Each backer has a history with Ethereum and the broader crypto sector. Fenbushi Capital, case in point, labeled Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin as a co-founder after it went live in 2015. Moreover, HashKey’s Feng and Buterin jointly launched the Ethereum Applications Guild earlier this month to boost the dApp ecosystem.
 
Meanwhile, Meitu was one of the earliest publicly traded companies to establish a crypto treasury, starting with a $40 million investment in Bitcoin and Ether back in 2021. Its founder, Wensheng, is a vocal crypto evangelist who is believed to have bought more than 10,000 BTC during the crypto winter in 2018.
Li founded the Huobi exchange in 2013 and later sold it to Chinese crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun.
His latest endeavor represents a massive bet on Ethereum’s role in institutional finance, as more companies aim for increased on-chain accessibility and composability for treasury operations.
Still, Avenir Capital is one of Asia’s biggest holders of Bitcoin ETFs, managing over $1 billion in assets. In August, the company reported holding roughly 16.5 million shares of BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust exchange-traded fund (IBIT).
Source: https://zycrypto.com/huobi-founder-li-lin-to-set-up-1-billion-ether-treasury-firm-backed-by-asias-top-investors/
