Executive Summary
The Story So Far
Why This Matters
Who Thinks What?
Huobi founder Li Lin has partnered with several prominent Asian crypto investors, including Shen Bo, Xiao Feng, and Cai Wensheng, to launch a new $1 billion digital asset trust focused on accumulating Ether (ETH). The initiative aims to capitalize on increasing institutional demand for Ethereum, with an official announcement anticipated in the coming weeks.
Trust Details and Funding
The trust has already secured approximately $1 billion in funding, with significant contributions from major backers. HongShan Capital Group, formerly Sequoia China, has committed $500 million, while Li’s Avenir Capital has contributed $200 million. This substantial backing underscores the confidence in Ethereum’s long-term potential among these prominent investors.
Plans are underway to structure the Ether trust through a Nasdaq-listed shell company. This framework is designed to provide a regulated pathway for institutional participation, strategically positioning the group to meet growing investor interest in Ethereum-based financial products.
Key Figures Behind the Initiative
Li Lin, who established Huobi in 2013 and grew it into one of the world’s top exchanges before its sale in 2021, later founded Avenir Capital. His Hong Kong-based investment firm has become a significant holder of Bitcoin ETFs, managing over $1 billion in assets.
His partners, Shen Bo, Xiao Feng, and Cai Wensheng, represent an early wave of Chinese crypto entrepreneurs who began investing in Ethereum shortly after its 2015 launch. Shen’s Fenbushi Capital has supported numerous early blockchain projects, while Xiao’s HashKey was among the first to obtain Hong Kong’s virtual asset trading license. Cai Wensheng is recognized for his notable crypto investments through his personal fund.
Broader Institutional Interest in Ethereum
The move by Li Lin’s group aligns with a broader industry trend of increasing institutional interest in Ethereum. At the Digital Assets Summit (DAS) 2025 in London, industry figures like Consensys CEO Joseph Lubin and SharpLink Co-CEO Joseph Chalom discussed Ethereum’s evolving role as a foundational layer for institutional finance.
Speakers at the summit highlighted Ethereum’s infrastructure, staking yields, and tokenization capabilities as key drivers for its growing adoption. They also pointed to on-chain fund issuance, improved interoperability, and enhanced regulatory clarity as catalysts that could cement Ethereum’s dominance in decentralized finance (DeFi) and tokenized real-world assets.
Outlook
This $1 billion Ether accumulation trust, spearheaded by Huobi founder Li Lin and other prominent Asian investors, signals a significant push to meet rising institutional demand for Ethereum-based financial products. The initiative positions these early backers to play a pivotal role in the asset’s anticipated “trillion-dollar phase” as regulatory clarity improves and on-chain financial innovation continues to expand.
