Some of Asia's largest Ethereum backers plan to launch $1 billion ETH treasury firm

Some of Asia’s earliest and most notable Ethereum backers are looking to acquire a Nasdaq-listed firm to launch a $1 billion ETH digital asset treasury (DAT), according to Bloomberg . 

The effort will include Huobi founder and Avenir Capital chairman Li Lin, Fenbushi Capital founder Shen Bo, HashKey Group CEO Xiao Feng, and Meitu Inc. founder Cai Wensheng, said people familiar with the matter, according to Bloomberg. Avenir, which manages over $1 billion in assets, has reportedly pledged $200 million for the effort, with hundreds of millions in additional commitments coming from regional investors like HongShan Capital Group.

Each backer has a long association with Ethereum and the wider crypto industry. Fenbushi Capital, for instance, counted Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin as a co-founder when it launched in 2015. Additionally, HashKey’s Feng and Buterin spun up the Ethereum Applications Guild earlier this month to support onchain app development.

Meanwhile, Meitu, a popular mobile app in China, was one of the earliest public firms to build a crypto treasury, beginning with a $40 million purchase of bitcoin and ETH in 2021. Its founder, Wensheng, has been an outspoken crypto advocate who is thought to have acquired over 10,000 BTC during the 2018 bear market. 

Compared to the U.S. and Canada, China has seen relatively fewer so-called digital asset treasury firms. While the DAT sector is dominated by Bitcoin, according to The Block data, ETH has seen a notable spike in interest in recent months, led by firms like BitMine, the second-largest crypto treasury, and SharpLink, which is backed by Consensys.