Who Is the ‘Zhang Hui’ Behind the BlackRock ETF? Speculation Mounts Over Chinese Capital’s Indirect Bitcoin Investment

▲ Who Is ‘Zhang Hui’ Hidden in BlackRock’s ETF? Rumors Grow Over Chinese Capital Indirectly Investing in Bitcoin / Gemini-generated image

Despite the Chinese government’s strict ban on virtual assets, a mysterious $436 million holding has been identified in disclosures for BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF), IBIT, drawing significant market attention. As rumors spread that the unidentified funds may be linked to Chinese capital, large whale investors appear to be shifting assets out of altcoins and into Bitcoin, signaling a growing preference for safer assets.

According to investment media outlet FXStreet on February 18 (local time), Jeff Park, an advisor at Bitwise Investment, identified an entity named Loroer Limited in BlackRock IBIT’s 13F quarterly filing. The Hong Kong-based entity was registered by an individual with the common Chinese name Zhang Hui. The inclusion of “Limited” in the company name suggests the possibility of indirect investment through tax havens such as the Cayman Islands, raising speculation that anonymous Chinese capital may have flowed into the fund.

While specific details about the entity and the individual named Zhang Hui remain difficult to verify, the media outlet analyzed that if the entity is linked to Chinese investors, it would indicate that local demand persists despite the virtual asset ban. In particular, as Chinese financial regulators have recently expanded prohibitions to include real-world asset (RWA) tokenization and stablecoins, any additional discovery of similar entities in future BlackRock filings could signal potential capital flight risks from China.

Amid these allegations of Chinese buying interest, institutional and large-scale investors have further strengthened their accumulation of Bitcoin. Strategy, led by Michael Saylor, purchased an additional 2,486 bitcoins last Tuesday, increasing its total holdings to 717,131 BTC and demonstrating unwavering confidence. According to CryptoQuant data, total whale holdings have also surged significantly from 2,887,400 BTC on December 11 to 3,109,900 BTC recently.

Market fund flows are also shifting rapidly from altcoins to Bitcoin. CryptoQuant analysis shows that altcoins’ share of total market trading volume plunged from approximately 59.83% on November 13 to 38.09% as of Monday, while Bitcoin’s share rose from 20.71% to 33.96% over the same period. This suggests that amid a bearish market, investors are increasingly seeking to preserve capital in relatively safer assets such as Bitcoin.

However, despite accumulation signals from large wallet holders, Bitcoin’s price continues to show defensive movement. The outlet assessed that outflows from spot ETFs combined with weak sentiment in the derivatives market have prevented Bitcoin from finding clear upward momentum.

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