Li Lin, the founder of the cryptocurrency exchange Huobi and chair of the investment company Avenir Capital, has reportedly secured approximately $1 billion as part of a strategy aimed at investing in Ether.
As stated in a Bloomberg report on Friday, Li has teamed up with Fenbushi Capital co-founder Shen Bo, HashKey Group CEO Xiao Feng, and Meitu founder Cai Wensheng to implement an Ether accumulation strategy via a Nasdaq-listed shell company. The initiative raised $1 billion, including $500 million from HongShan Capital Group and $200 million from Avenir.
With backing from Ether (ETH) supporters, the group intends to announce the trust’s launch in two to three weeks.
Li established the Huobi exchange in 2013 and later sold the company to crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun. The relationship between the two has been marked by tensions, including lawsuits concerning the use of the term Huobi Global and allegations of fraud.
Related: 95% of corporate ETH purchases occurred in Q3 — beginning of Ether supercycle?
According to Nansen data, the price of ETH was $3,857 at the time of publication, having increased by over 9% in the past week.
Avenir remains a leading Bitcoin holder
The investment firm reported holding roughly 16.5 million shares of BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust exchange-traded fund, or IBIT, as of August. Accelerating its acquisition of other tokens like Ether and Solana (SOL) — the company was involved in establishing a $500-million Solana treasury in September — could notably influence investment strategies within the crypto sector.
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