In April 2026, a Hong Kong stock exchange announcement by New Huo Group brought Huobi founder Li Lin back into the market’s view. New Huo Group plans to acquire Avenir Investment Management Limited’s AvenirX institutional-grade investment and trading system for approximately $1.5775 million. According to the announcement, the transaction constitutes a connected transaction because the seller is ultimately controlled by Li Lin, and Li Lin also serves as the chairman of the board of directors and a non-executive director of New Huo Group.
This is not an ordinary acquisition of software assets. Li Lin is importing Avenir’s internal investment and trading capabilities into a Hong Kong-listed company platform. From Huobi to Avenir, and then to New Huo Group, Li Lin’s post-Huobi era is not a simple exit, but a restructuring of capital organization methods.
Li Lin’s wealth originated from Huobi. As a first-generation exchange entrepreneur in the Chinese crypto industry, Huobi was one of the most important cryptocurrency trading platforms in the world during its peak. Subsequently, with adjustments in the industry environment and regulatory policies, Li Lin sold Huobi’s controlling stake around 2022, with a transaction amount of approximately $1.0 billion. Avenir Group emerged in this context. Its official website describes it as an investment group “originating from Li Lin’s family office,” positioned for the strategic integration of traditional finance and digital assets, with investment directions covering digital assets, trading and financial services platforms, PayFi infrastructure, and RRWA.
More precisely, Avenir is not a traditional family office that only focuses on wealth preservation and asset diversification, but an institutionalized investment management platform evolved from family capital: it has the capital base of a family office, as well as the trading capabilities of an asset management company and the expansion ambitions of a fintech platform.
To understand Avenir, first look at its clearest allocation – Bitcoin ETF. Avenir does not fully express its digital asset exposure through on-chain wallets or exchange accounts, but holds a large number of U.S.-listed Bitcoin ETFs, especially BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT). According to the 13F filings submitted by Avenir Tech Ltd to the U.S. SEC, it held approximately 11.29 million shares of IBIT as of the end of 2024, with a declared market value of approximately $599.00 million; it increased to approximately 18.30 million shares by the end of the third quarter of 2025, with a market value of approximately $1.189 billion; and approximately 18.29 million shares at the end of 2025, with a market value falling back to approximately $908.00 million. Avenir officially stated that it has maintained its position as the largest Bitcoin ETF holder in Asia since the second quarter of 2024.
For exchange founders like Li Lin, directly holding Bitcoin is not difficult. However, Avenir’s choice to allocate ETFs on a large scale indicates that it values not only the rise in coin prices, but also the long-term trend of digital assets entering the traditional financial system. Bitcoin ETFs transform on-chain assets into securitized products that can be托管, audited, and disclosed, making Bitcoin easier to enter brokerage accounts, fund reports, and family office asset allocation tables.
If Avenir only heavily invests in IBIT, it is at most a family capital platform betting on Bitcoin ETFs. However, Avenir’s more critical action is to build trading, quantitative, and yield enhancement capabilities around the underlying digital asset holdings. In 2024, Avenir Crypto launched a $500.00 million cooperation program to provide financial support to outstanding quantitative trading teams around the world. This shows that Avenir is not satisfied with simply obtaining Bitcoin Beta, but hopes to obtain additional returns through quantitative strategies and derivatives trading.
According to the New Huo Group announcement, AvenirX is an institutional-grade investment and trading operating system consisting of approximately 42 functional modules, covering investment research, strategy portfolio management, order management, trade execution, risk control, and performance analysis. Its execution layer supports algorithms such as TWAP, VWAP, and Iceberg, and the risk control layer covers pre-trade approval, 7×24-hour real-time monitoring, and post-trade review. The value of this system lies in its transformation of Avenir’s internal trading experience, risk control rules, and investment research processes into system assets that can be deployed, audited, and reviewed.
From public information, Avenir’s investment layout revolves around the institutionalization of digital assets. The first layer is Bitcoin ETFs, establishing core underlying assets through tools such as IBIT; the second layer is trading and quantitative capabilities; and the third layer is trading infrastructure and financial services platforms. In 2026, Avenir announced a strategic investment and cooperation with CoinRoutes, led the investment in Inference Research, and participated in the strategic investment of Nasdaq-listed company Metalpha. These investments indicate that Avenir is not making decentralized financial investments, but is completing the capability puzzle around the institutionalization of digital assets.
New Huo Group (Hong Kong Stock Exchange: 1611) is the key carrier for releasing these capabilities to the external market. The transfer of the AvenirX system to New Huo Group means that Li Lin is importing Avenir’s internal investment research, trading, and risk control capabilities into a listed company platform. New Huo Group’s planned launch of the Alpha BTC strategy is a productized embodiment of this path – using Bitcoin or IBIT ETF as the underlying asset, and obtaining returns through options and other derivatives trading, targeting crypto-native investors, local Hong Kong companies, and institutional funds.
Zhao Changpeng and Li Lin are both representatives of the first generation of entrepreneurial wealth in the crypto industry. Zhao Changpeng’s post-Binance era is like an extension of industrial capital, embedding itself in the entrepreneurial ecosystem through YZi Labs and focusing on the next technology platform; while Li Lin’s post-Huobi era is more like an asset management transformation, building digital asset management infrastructure around Bitcoin ETFs, quantitative trading, trading systems, and listed companies. In the view of Family Office New Intelligence, Zhao Changpeng’s keyword is “industrial betting,” while Li Lin’s keyword is “financialization.”
Family Office New Intelligence believes that Avenir is worthy of attention from the family office industry because it provides a sample different from traditional family offices. New wealth from highly volatile industries may not naturally move towards conservative allocation. Family offices are not necessarily just risk contraction tools, but may also be capital platforms for founders to continue participating in the industrial cycle. However, Avenir’s path cannot be simply written as a successful transformation. Whether it can truly bring stable AUM growth in the future depends on product issuance, customer acceptance, and actual trading performance. From Huobi to Avenir, and then to New Huo Group, the real question raised by this case is, when a generation of entrepreneurial wealth comes from extremely volatile industries, should family offices retreat to defense, or transform the original industrial capabilities into the next stage of the capital system? Li Lin’s answer is the latter.
[Family Office New Intelligence]
Li Lin’s Financialization Strategy: How Avenir is Reshaping Crypto Institutional Adoption
The recent announcement of New Huo Group’s acquisition of AvenirX marks a pivotal moment in the evolution of crypto-native wealth management. Far from a simple exit from the crypto industry, Huobi founder Li Lin is executing a sophisticated strategy to institutionalize digital assets through traditional finance vehicles while maintaining deep industry expertise. This move not only represents a significant capital reallocation but also provides a template for how first-generation crypto wealth can transform into sustainable financial infrastructure.
Strategic Architecture: Three-Layer Institutional Approach
Li Lin’s Avenir is far more than a traditional family office. It represents a three-layer institutional framework that positions digital assets within traditional financial systems:
Layer One: Bitcoin ETF Core Holdings
Avenir’s substantial allocation to BlackRock’s IBIT (11.29 million shares growing to 18.30 million by Q3 2025) represents a deliberate strategy to gain exposure to Bitcoin through regulated, accessible instruments. The $1.189 billion peak holding demonstrates a significant institutional conviction in Bitcoin as an asset class that can be integrated into traditional portfolios. Unlike many crypto-native entities holding on-chain assets, Avenir’s ETF approach facilitates easier auditing, custody, and inclusion in mainstream financial products.
Layer Two: Quantitative and Trading Capabilities
The $500 million program supporting quantitative trading teams and the sophisticated AvenirX system (42 functional modules covering the full investment lifecycle) indicate Avenir’s pursuit of alpha beyond simple Bitcoin exposure. This institutional-grade infrastructure enables sophisticated derivative strategies, risk management, and performance optimization – capabilities that traditional family offices typically lack but are essential for competing in today’s financial markets.
Layer Three: Strategic Infrastructure Investments
Through partnerships with CoinRoutes, investments in Inference Research, and the Nasdaq-listed Metalpha, Avenir is systematically building the ecosystem around digital asset financialization. These targeted investments are not speculative bets on individual tokens but rather infrastructure plays that facilitate the integration of digital assets into traditional finance.
Market Impact and Implications
The institutionalization of crypto through vehicles like Avenir has profound implications for market dynamics:
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Price Discovery Mechanism: Large-scale ETF holdings like Avenir’s create a more stable price discovery mechanism for Bitcoin, reducing volatility while maintaining upside potential. This two-way flow between traditional finance and crypto markets is essential for mainstream adoption.
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Regulatory Arbitrage Mitigation: By operating through Hong Kong-listed New Huo Group, Li Lin is creating a transparent, regulated pathway for digital asset products. This approach contrasts with the often-opaque nature of crypto-native enterprises and provides a template for regulatory compliance without sacrificing innovation.
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Product Innovation Catalyst: The planned Alpha BTC strategy, using Bitcoin/IBIT ETFs as underlying assets for derivatives trading, represents the next evolution in crypto financial products. Such strategies can attract capital from crypto-savvy investors while operating within traditional financial frameworks.
Competitive Landscape: Financialization vs. Industrialization
Li Lin’s approach stands in sharp contrast to other crypto founders’ post-exit strategies:
While Zhao Changpeng’s YZi Labs represents an “industrial betting” approach focused on next-generation technology platforms, Li Lin’s Avenir embodies “financialization” – transforming industry expertise into sophisticated financial products. This dichotomy reflects two valid but distinct approaches to post-exit value creation in the crypto space.
Risks and Challenges
Despite the sophisticated architecture, significant risks remain:
- Concentration Risk: Avenir’s heavy allocation to Bitcoin ETFs creates single-asset exposure that may not be suitable for all investor profiles.
- Performance Pressure: The Alpha BTC strategy will face intense scrutiny to deliver consistent alpha in a highly competitive derivatives market.
- Regulatory Uncertainty: The evolving regulatory landscape for both digital assets and derivatives products could impact the viability of certain strategies.
- Market Volatility: The inherent volatility of crypto markets remains a challenge for institutional product design.
Investment Opportunities
For experienced crypto investors, Avenir’s strategy offers several considerations:
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Infrastructure Plays: Companies providing trading technology, risk management solutions, and compliance infrastructure for digital assets may benefit from this institutionalization trend.
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Bitcoin Ecosystem: The growing institutional adoption of Bitcoin through ETFs suggests continued upside potential for Bitcoin and related infrastructure providers.
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Hybrid Financial Products: The emergence of sophisticated crypto-traditional hybrid financial products could create new asset classes and investment opportunities.
Conclusion: A New Paradigm for Crypto Wealth
Li Lin’s post-Huobi journey represents a paradigm shift in how crypto-native wealth can be managed and deployed. Rather than choosing between complete exit from the industry or continued pure-play involvement, Avenir creates a hybrid model that leverages industry expertise while conforming to traditional financial frameworks.
The success of this approach will depend on several factors: the performance of the Alpha BTC strategy, the scalability of Avenir’s institutional platform, and the broader acceptance of digital assets within traditional finance. However, the strategic architecture itself provides a compelling template for other crypto entrepreneurs seeking to transform industry success into sustainable financial enterprises.
As the crypto market continues to mature, Li Lin’s financialization strategy may well prove to be as influential as his founding of Huobi – not as a disruptive force, but as an institutionalizing one that bridges the gap between crypto-native innovation and traditional finance’s demand for regulated, sophisticated investment vehicles.