Asia's Ethereum Backers Plan $1 Billion ETH Treasury via Nasdaq Acquisition

Executive Summary

A consortium of prominent Asian Ethereum backers, including founders of Huobi and Fenbushi Capital, is establishing a $1 billion ETH digital asset treasury firm and seeking to acquire a Nasdaq-listed company to facilitate the initiative.

The Event in Detail

A group of Asia's earliest and most notable Ethereum backers plans to launch a $1 billion ETH digital asset treasury (DAT) firm. This consortium includes Li Lin, founder of Huobi and chairman of Avenir Capital; Shen Bo, founder of Fenbushi Capital; Xiao Feng, CEO of HashKey Group; and Cai Wensheng, founder of Meitu Inc. The initiative involves acquiring a Nasdaq-listed firm to facilitate the launch of the ETH DAT. Commitments totaling hundreds of millions of dollars have already been secured from regional investors, with Avenir Capital alone pledging $200 million.

The key figures involved have deep historical ties to Ethereum and the broader crypto industry. Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum's creator, co-founded Fenbushi Capital in 2015. Additionally, HashKey's Feng and Buterin recently established the Ethereum Applications Guild to support on-chain application development. Meitu Inc., under Cai Wensheng, was an early corporate adopter of crypto treasuries, initiating a $40 million purchase of Bitcoin and ETH in 2021. Cai Wensheng is also known for acquiring over 10,000 BTC during the 2018 bear market.

Financial Mechanics and Business Strategy

The strategy to acquire a Nasdaq-listed firm for the ETH DAT echoes the playbook pioneered by companies like MicroStrategy, which leveraged its public listing to raise funds for Bitcoin acquisitions. However, Nasdaq's 2025 listing reforms introduce new financial and procedural barriers. These include a $15 million minimum public float for new listings under the net income standard and a $25 million minimum public-offering proceeds requirement for Chinese-based DAT firms, which could impact smaller regional players. Furthermore, shareholder approval is now required before issuing new shares to fund crypto purchases, a rule introduced to prevent opaque capital-raising practices. This added scrutiny has previously led to market volatility, such as a 3.5% stock drop for MicroStrategy following such announcements.

The move by these Asian backers aligns with a broader trend in corporate treasury management where digital assets are increasingly viewed as a diversified reserve strategy. While the overall DAT sector has historically been dominated by Bitcoin, Ethereum has seen a notable surge in corporate interest. Firms like BitMine and SharpLink have significantly increased their ETH holdings, with BitMine Immersion Technologies becoming the largest public ETH treasury, holding approximately 2.83 million ETH. The pace of new ETH allocations has surpassed new Bitcoin buys in recent periods, driven by a "yielding reserves" thesis that values ETH staking rewards as an offset to holding costs.

Market Implications

The establishment of a $1 billion ETH DAT by prominent Asian investors holds significant implications for the Ethereum ecosystem and the broader Web3 market. In the short term, this initiative could bolster confidence in Ethereum's institutional appeal and potentially influence the ETH price positively due to increased demand from such a large treasury. Long-term, it establishes a substantial institutional player within the ETH ecosystem, potentially paving the way for further corporate adoption and the development of sophisticated financial products built around Ethereum, particularly within Asia. This could also stimulate merger and acquisition activity in the crypto space involving traditional finance entities.

The corporate shift towards Ethereum for treasuries reflects changing perceptions and the maturation of the digital asset market. Regulatory changes, such as the new fair-value accounting rule FASB ASU 2023-08, approved in 2025, allow companies to update crypto holdings quarterly based on market prices, easing reporting. This, combined with a more favorable U.S. policy environment following the end of "Operation Choke Point 2.0," encourages more firms to consider digital assets. The trend indicates that corporate treasuries are moving beyond the question of whether to hold digital assets to how to size, govern, and report them, with some projections suggesting crypto could become a standard balance sheet item by 2030.

Broader Context

The digital asset treasury model, while gaining traction, is not without its challenges. The QMMM case in September 2025, where a company's stock saw a dramatic surge after announcing a $100 million investment in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana, was later met with SEC accusations of stock manipulation. This highlights the regulatory scrutiny and market volatility inherent in the space. However, the overall corporate crypto treasury market has grown substantially, with over 228 publicly traded companies adopting DAT strategies, funneling a collective $148 billion into crypto, a 628.3% increase from $15.38 billion within one year. This seismic change is driven by factors like inflation eroding fiat value and the increasing credibility of digital assets as a store of value. The entry of conservative capital pools like corporate treasuries into crypto deepens liquidity, broadens the holder base, and sets a peer benchmark, compelling other firms to evaluate similar opportunities.

The focus on Ethereum in this new DAT initiative also underscores its growing role beyond merely a store of value, with an emphasis on its ecosystem for on-chain accessibility and composability for treasury operations. The emergence of platforms facilitating tokenized money market funds on Ethereum and regulated digital dollars earning interest in DeFi protocols further supports this trend.