The private trading empire of Chinese crypto tycoon Li Lin is set to integrate with a publicly listed company he oversees in Hong Kong, aimed at meeting increasing investor interest in digital assets. The firm in question is Bitfire, a wealth management entity where Li holds the largest shareholding. As reported by Reuters, on Wednesday, Bitfire announced plans to spend $1.6 million acquiring a trading platform and investment team from Li’s family office, Avenir Group.
Though labeled as an acquisition, this transaction effectively transfers portions of Li’s private crypto operations into a publicly traded entity, potentially opening avenues for institutional investors. This move is synchronous with regional trends; despite China banning cryptocurrency trading in 2021, Hong Kong seeks to establish itself as a regulated center for digital assets, attracting firms seeking compliant bases. Recently, the region granted stablecoin licenses to major banks like HSBC and Standard Chartered.
By integrating Avenir’s resources, Bitfire intends to launch ‘Alpha BTC,’ a bitcoin-centric strategy aimed at amassing over 10,000 bitcoins, equating to approximately $760 million in assets within the year. This approach will focus on generating returns via derivatives trading, including bitcoin options and products like IBIT.
Avenir has amassed a substantial stake in bitcoin ETFs, holding 18.3 million shares of IBIT issued by BlackRock, valued at about $908 million as of late 2025 according to regulatory filings. Li originally founded Huobi (now HTX), which became one of the globe’s premier crypto exchanges before he sold a majority share to Justin Sun for roughly $1 billion in 2022. Since then, his focus has been on investment management through Avenir.