Original | Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)
Yesterday, Yunfeng Financial, in which Jack Ma holds shares indirectly, announced that the company's board has approved the purchase of ETH in the open market as a reserve asset. As of the announcement date, the group has cumulatively purchased 10,000 ETH in the open market, with a total investment cost (including fees and expenses) of 44 million USD.
In addition, the group's use of ETH as a reserve asset aligns with its layout in cutting-edge fields such as Web 3, and can optimize its asset structure while reducing reliance on traditional currencies. As a result of this news, Yunfeng Financial (0376.HK) saw an intraday increase of nearly 10%.
Jack Ma and Yunfeng Financial
Yunfeng Financial has always been regarded as a "Jack Ma concept stock."
The controlling shareholder of Yunfeng Financial is Yunfeng Capital, a fund co-founded by Jack Ma and Yu Feng, the founder of Focus Media, in 2010. The "Yun" comes from Jack Ma, and the "Feng" comes from Yu Feng. According to public data, Alibaba founder Jack Ma indirectly holds about 11.15% of Yunfeng Financial through Yunfeng Capital, with a 29.85% stake in Yunfeng Financial Holdings Limited and a 40% stake in Shanghai Yunfeng Innovation (without voting rights).
Jack Ma and Yu Feng
Additionally, the predecessor of Yunfeng Financial can be traced back to Wansheng International Securities, established in 1982, which was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 1987 and gradually grew into a leading local brokerage in Hong Kong. In 2015, Jack Ma and Yu Feng led Yunfeng Capital to acquire a controlling stake for 3.9 billion HKD, driving the company's transformation. Since then, Yunfeng Financial has built a "finance + technology" ecological closed loop by acquiring 60% of the shares of American United Insurance Asia (in 2018) and integrating licenses in securities, insurance, and asset management.
Yunfeng Financial's Purchase of Ethereum is Just the Beginning
Yunfeng Financial announced yesterday that it has included Ethereum as part of its strategic reserve assets. This move marks the beginning of the group's layout in the digital asset and Web 3 fields, and it will continue to promote the strategic and digital financial innovation of crypto assets in the future, exploring the inclusion of mainstream tokens such as BTC and SOL into its reserves.
At the same time, the group plans to deeply integrate digital assets with its own business, exploring the tokenization of RWA (real-world assets) and the potential applications of blockchain technology in core businesses such as insurance and asset management, to build a "finance + technology" ecological closed loop.
Yunfeng Financial will flexibly adjust the scale of its digital asset reserves based on market developments, regulatory environments, and financial conditions. The group emphasizes that it will continue to accelerate its layout in Web 3, promoting financial technology innovation to enhance customer service experience and financial autonomy.
Strategic Investment in Public Chain Pharos, Collaborating with Ant Group in RWA Sector
On September 1, Yunfeng Financial announced a strategic cooperation agreement with Ant Group, along with a strategic investment in the Pharos public chain. This collaboration aims to accelerate the innovative integration of Web 3 and traditional finance, jointly laying out the tokenization of RWA (real-world assets) and the Web 3 field through the Pharos public chain platform.
Pharos Project Introduction
Pharos is a next-generation Layer 1 public chain focused on RWA.
In terms of performance, the network features a modular design and high parallelism, with the currently launched testnet achieving a TPS of 30,000, far exceeding other EVM and parallel networks; at the same time, Pharos adopts an innovative GPU-like architecture, improving storage efficiency by 80%, capable of supporting billions of users. The core team of Pharos includes not only Web 2 experts from Ant Group and Alibaba Blockchain but also seasoned professionals from the Web 3 industry.
In terms of financing, on November 8, 2024, Pharos completed an $8 million seed round financing, led by Faction and Hack VC, with participation from SNZ Holding, Hash Global, MH Ventures, Dispersion Capital, Generative Ventures, and Chorus One.
Second Season of Testnet Tasks Underway
Currently, Pharos has opened the second season of its testnet for early users to experience, with specific interactive operations as follows:
STEP 1. Claim test coins, you can choose to first claim 0G test coins (link: https://hub.0g.ai/faucet), and exchange them for PHRS test coins.
STEP 2. Enter the second season interactive website (link: https://testnet.pharosnetwork.xyz/experience), connect your wallet, and complete the daily check-in.
STEP 3. Complete on-chain interaction tasks and social tasks as required.
Summary
Jack Ma's indirect stake in Yunfeng Financial's strategic layout of Ethereum not only demonstrates a belief in emerging technologies but also reflects its forward-looking exploration in financial architecture.
From an overall strategic perspective, Yunfeng Financial is taking a key step in optimizing its reserves and reducing reliance on traditional fiat currencies by increasing its digital asset holdings; on the other hand, it is also attempting to deeply integrate traditional financial services with Web 3 technology, particularly exploring blockchain application scenarios in areas such as insurance and securities.
With Hong Kong's advantages in digital asset regulation, Yunfeng Financial is expected to become an important bridge between traditional finance and the crypto ecosystem. Perhaps for Jack Ma, the purchase of 10,000 ETH by Yunfeng Financial is just the beginning of its Web 3 layout—the true digital financial landscape is just beginning to unfold.
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