Li Lin, a prominent figure in the cryptocurrency landscape, is initiating a significant shift in strategy by moving a trading system and team from his family office, Avenir Group, to the Hong Kong-listed Bitfire Group, where he holds the largest share. This transfer aims to capitalize on the increasing demand for digital asset management among investors and institutional entities.
On Wednesday, Bitfire announced an agreement to acquire the investment team and trading systems of Avenir Group for $1.6 million. This move comes at a time when Hong Kong is striving to establish itself as a major hub for virtual assets, especially as cryptocurrency trading remains banned in mainland China since 2021.
Li, originally from Hunan province, gained recognition for his role in building Huobi—now known as HTX—into one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges. Following a significant crackdown by Chinese regulators, he sold a controlling stake in Huobi for approximately $1 billion to crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun in 2022. Since then, Li has been focusing his efforts on the operations of his family office.
With this acquisition, Bitfire plans to launch a regulated bitcoin-denominated asset management program dubbed the “Alpha BTC” strategy. Livio Weng, CEO of Bitfire, indicated in an interview that they intend to attract investments equivalent to over 10,000 bitcoins, which is roughly valued at $760 million, within the upcoming year. Weng noted a substantial market demand for such financial products, particularly as an increasing number of local firms hold bitcoin without having effective means to derive profits from it.
The “Alpha BTC” strategy is designed to generate returns through derivatives trading, including options, with bitcoin or IBIT ETF as the underlying asset. Weng expressed confidence that both crypto-native investors and firms based in Hong Kong will be the primary clientele for this new offering.
According to estimates from Bitfire, at least 40 companies listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange are currently holding bitcoin assets. This trend follows a period of volatility in the cryptocurrency market, with bitcoin recently trading around $76,000, indicating a rebound from a challenging first quarter.
Avenir Group has also positioned itself as a significant player in the bitcoin ETF landscape, having become Asia’s largest bitcoin ETF investor. As of the end of 2025, the firm held 18.3 million shares of BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust, valued at $908 million, marking a substantial footprint in the region’s cryptocurrency investments.
