Chinese crypto tycoon eyes Hong Kong capital with bitcoin asset management push

Chinese crypto tycoon Li Lin plans to move a trading system and team from his family office to Hong Kong-listed Bitfire ​Group (1611), where he is the largest shareholder, in an effort to ‌tap into demand for digital assets among investors and institutions.

Bitfire, a wealth-management firm, on Wednesday said it had agreed to buy the investment team and trading systems of Avenir Group, ​Li's family office, for US$1.6 million.

Li, from China's Hunan province, built Huobi - now ​known as HTX - into one of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges, ⁠before a Beijing crackdown reshaped the industry.

Cryptocurrency trading has been banned in mainland China ​since 2021, while Hong Kong is striving to become a virtual asset hub.

After ​selling a controlling stake in Huobi for about US$1 billion to crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun in 2022, Li shifted his focus to his family office.

With the acquisition, Bitfire plans to raise external ​money to provide regulated bitcoin-denominated asset management services, called the "Alpha BTC" strategy, said ​Livio Weng, CEO of Bitfire, in an interview.

Weng said the strategy would seek to attract investment ‌equivalent ⁠to more than 10,000 bitcoins - worth around US$760 million - within a year.

"Market demand for such products is huge," Weng said, as a growing number of local firms are holding bitcoin, though they lack ways to make gains from the digital currency.

The ​strategy will generate profits ​via derivatives trading, ⁠such as options, using bitcoin or IBIT ETF as the underlying asset, he said, adding that both crypto-native investors and ​Hong Kong-based firms would be the target clients.

At least 40 ​Hong Kong-listed ⁠companies have bitcoin holdings, according to Bitfire estimates.

Bitcoin was last trading at around US$76,000, rebounding from a weak first quarter amid heavy volatility.

Since 2024, Avenir has become Asia's largest ⁠bitcoin ​ETF investor. The firm held 18.3 million shares ​of BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust with a valuation of US$908 million as of the end of 2025, according ​to its regulatory filing.

Reuters