On September 1, 2025, Yunfeng Financial Group announced a strategic cooperation agreement with Ant Digital Technologies and a strategic investment in the Pharos public chain. On September 2, Yunfeng Financial issued an announcement: the company's board of directors has approved the purchase of ETH on the open market as a reserve asset. As of the announcement date, the Group has cumulatively purchased 10,000 ETH on the open market, with a total investment cost (including fees and expenses) of USD 44 million.
Yunfeng Financial's intensive announcements over these two days have attracted attention within the industry. What is Yunfeng Financial's background? What achievements has Jack Ma's Ant Digital Technologies made in the past two years? Is the Pharos public chain worth paying attention to? What are the profound implications of the collaboration between these two giants...
I. Yunfeng Financial's Crypto Strategy
In 2010, Jack Ma and Yu Feng, founder of Target Media, established Yunfeng Fund. The following year, it was renamed Yunfeng Financial. The name "Yunfeng" is derived from the names of the two founders. Jack Ma indirectly holds approximately 11.15% of the shares in Yunfeng Financial through Yunfeng Fund.
According to Yunfeng Financial's official website, it is listed on the Hong Kong Main Board and operates securities brokerage, asset management, insurance, and fintech businesses. Subsidiaries of Yunfeng Financial Group hold Type 1, 4, and 9 financial services licenses granted by the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC). Additionally, through its controlling stake in YF Life Insurance International Ltd., the Group holds a long-term insurance business license from the Hong Kong Insurance Authority and is an approved trustee for the Hong Kong Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF).
Yunfeng Financial's purchase of ETH as a reserve asset is actually a continuation of the financial strategy disclosed in July, when the board expressed strong interest in Web3 technology, RWA tokenization, digital currencies, ESG net-zero assets, and artificial intelligence. The board reiterated that purchasing ETH helps the company achieve its long-term goal of integrating finance and technology. "ETH is accounted for as an investment in the Group's financial statements." Yunfeng Financial also pointed out that holding ETH will help achieve asset diversification and reduce reliance on traditional fiat currencies. Future plans include exploring Ethereum's potential applications in insurance business and new decentralized finance (DeFi) business scenarios.
Driven by expectations of Federal Reserve interest rate cuts and institutional investor interest, the price of Ethereum has risen significantly in recent weeks. Undoubtedly, amidst the current wave of crypto treasuries, Yunfeng Financial has also recognized Ethereum's future development potential. Incorporating ETH into its financial framework can enhance financial autonomy and innovation capabilities, improve customer experience; it can also lock in its future value by accumulating ETH, securing a share in the promising future of the crypto market. Subsequently, Yunfeng Financial will continue to monitor market trends and regulatory frameworks for digital assets to assess whether to increase ETH reserves.
Furthermore, Yunfeng Financial's announcement of cooperation with Ant Digital Technologies and investment in a public chain the day before yesterday is not surprising. As early as July 14 this year, Yunfeng Financial had already issued an announcement mentioning its intention to enter the Web3 field. The announcement indicated that, based on its existing insurance and fintech businesses, it would strategically deploy in cutting-edge areas such as Web3.0, Real World Assets (RWA), digital currencies, ESG zero-carbon assets, and artificial intelligence (AI), and explore innovations connecting these frontier areas with various application scenarios of the Group's insurance companies. Building on the ecosystem platform of organic integration of finance and technology already established with strategic partners in cloud services and virtual banking based on insurance and securities assets, the Group will further increase investment in digital currencies (such as stablecoins), Real World Assets (RWA), and AI related to digital technology, and actively explore the field of ESG zero-carbon assets in the Greater Bay Area. The Group will continue to actively participate in and lead technological changes to enhance long-term shareholder value and returns.
Yunfeng Financial's entry into the Web3 field is a well-considered strategic decision. In the current rapid development of fintech, areas like Web3 and digital currencies show enormous development potential. Yunfeng Financial aims to layout early and seize the high ground in the future development of fintech.
II. What Achievements Has Ant Digital Technologies Made in the Past Two Years?
Ant Digital Technologies is an independent technology subsidiary under Ant Group. It began independent operations in 2024, splitting from Ant Group. Its core business is providing digital upgrade solutions for industries through technologies like artificial intelligence, blockchain, and cloud computing.
In the past two years, Ant Digital Technologies has achieved remarkable results in the blockchain field.
March 2024: Ant Digital Technologies began independent operations and completed a RMB 2 billion capital increase.
May 2024: The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) launched the Ensemble sandbox, with Ant Digital Technologies becoming one of the initial members. The project supports the HKMA's tokenization and Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) initiatives and explores tokenization use cases.
August 2024: Under the guidance of the HKMA, Ant Digital Technologies supported Mainland new energy listed company Langxiso in successfully completing a RMB 100 million RWA cross-border financing, with underlying assets being charging piles. This was the first new energy RWA project in China and was selected as a representative case in the HKMA's Ensemble sandbox.
March 2025: The "Trusted Blockchain - Technical Specifications for Trusted On-Chaining of Physical Assets," jointly initiated by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) and Ant Digital Technologies, was officially approved and writing commenced, indicating a new stage in the standardization process for physical asset RWA.
April 2025: Ant Digital Technologies open-sourced its DTVM virtual machine, seamlessly compatible with the Ethereum ecosystem.
June 2025: Ant Digital Technologies initiated an application for a Hong Kong stablecoin license.
July 2025: The testnet for Jovay, a Layer 2 blockchain under Ant Digital Technologies, officially launched. As a blockchain platform specifically built by Ant Digital Technologies for institutional-grade application scenarios, it aims to serve various applications including RWA.
August 2025: Ant Digital Technologies collaborated with Guotai Junan International to complete the first cross-chain issuance of structured product tokens "Ant Chain - Ethereum."
September 2025: Ant Digital Technologies reached a strategic cooperation agreement with Yunfeng Financial. Both parties will leverage the Pharos public chain platform to jointly and compliantly expand into frontier areas such as Real World Asset (RWA) tokenization and Web3.
As mentioned above, Yunfeng Financial has extensive experience in securities, asset management, insurance, and fintech, while Ant Digital Technologies has deeply cultivated blockchain technology and digital assets in recent years. Their cooperation is a powerful alliance and a classic case of the integration of traditional finance and emerging finance, complementing each other's advantages.
III. Is the Pharos Public Chain Worth Paying Attention To?
The Pharos public chain was established in July 2024 by former core members of Ant Group's blockchain business. Founder and CEO Alex Zhang previously served as CTO of Ant Blockchain Business Group and CEO of Ant Chain's Web3 brand, ZAN; CTO Wish longer formerly served as CSO of Ant Chain.
Pharos is an EVM-compatible Layer 1 network aiming to bridge Web2 and Web3 assets and liquidity. Pharos focuses on institutional-grade RWA application scenarios and enterprise-level decentralized finance needs, committed to building leading modular infrastructure to solve the pain points and difficulties traditional institutions face when entering Web3, creating an efficient, low-cost payment network, and promoting the large-scale deployment of decentralized applications (dApps) and the expansion of tokenized asset scenarios. It bridges over USD 50 trillion in RWA, TradFi, and cross-chain capital into an internet-scale modular on-chain economy. It supports real-time, real-world applications through a deeply parallel layer architecture.
In May this year, Pharos announced the official launch of its public testnet.
In June, the RWA protocol Spout announced its launch on the Pharos testnet.
In August, Pharos partnered with the decentralized Web3 wallet Bitverse to plan the construction of a Perpetual Decentralized Exchange (PerpDEX) on the Pharos network.
In September, Yunfeng Financial announced that it would jointly deploy in the RWA tokenization and Web3 fields with Ant Digital Technologies through the high-performance Pharos public chain platform.
Pharos has accurately captured the hottest current sector track. As the popularity of RWA continues to rise, both traditional financial institutions and crypto financial institutions have an urgent need for on-chain asset platforms. With its EVM compatibility, the Pharos public chain can seamlessly connect with mature development tools and applications in the Ethereum ecosystem, reducing developer migration costs.
Simultaneously, it focuses on institutional-grade needs. With the concrete development of investment and cooperation from giants like Ant Digital Technologies and Yunfeng Financial, its prospects for technological iteration and ecological expansion are likely to continue advancing, potentially making it infrastructure connecting crypto finance with traditional finance and expanding RWA's influence in traditional finance.
IV. The Significance of the Collaboration Between the Two Giants
The cooperation between Yunfeng Financial and Ant Digital Technologies is a result of the collision between traditional finance and digital finance. It is not only beneficial for their respective business development but also has significant implications for the entire Web3 industry and the RWA track.
For Yunfeng Financial, this collaboration can directly help it expand its business in Web3 and the crypto领域. Yunfeng Financial stated in its announcement: "The cooperation with Ant Digital Technologies will not only strengthen the Group's layout in the digital finance field but also help Ant Digital Technologies deepen the application of blockchain technology. The synergistic effect between the two parties will create new growth opportunities for each other." By leveraging Ant Digital Technologies' blockchain technology and ecosystem resources, Yunfeng Financial can directly accelerate into the fast lane of blockchain technology and crypto finance. Through the Pharos public chain, Yunfeng Financial can quickly achieve the integration of traditional finance and on-chain finance, providing users with a richer array of financial products, and even attracting more institutional investors looking to enter the RWA field.
For Ant Digital Technologies, Yunfeng Financial's years of experience in traditional finance and its already obtained Type 1, 4, and 9 financial licenses can provide Ant Digital Technologies with more advantages in compliant operations. Additionally, Yunfeng Financial's customer channels and capital reserves can help alleviate concerns about the practical implementation following the investment in the Pharos public chain. Through the Pharos public chain, Ant Digital Technologies can further expand its influence in the blockchain technology field, deeply focus on L1 development, and even integrate its own technical standards and ecosystem development into it.
