Carbon Chain Project, purchase of ETH, cooperation with Ant Financial, strategic investment in Pharos, who is leading Yunfeng Financial's Web3 strategy?
By Karen Z, Foresight News
On September 2, 2025, Yunfeng Financial Group, a Hong Kong-listed company, issued an announcement: the company has used US$44 million of its own cash reserves to purchase a total of 10,000 Ethereum on the open market as a strategic reserve asset.
In fact, as early as July, the board of directors of Yunfeng Financial announced that the group plans to deploy cutting-edge fields such as Web 3, real-world assets (RWA), digital currency, ESG zero-carbon assets and artificial intelligence (AI), and will increase investment in digital currency.
Behind this series of bold moves, two key figures, Jack Ma and Xiao Feng, have become the focus of industry attention. Jack Ma may be an indirect shareholder of Yunfeng Financial, while Xiao Feng, as an independent non-executive director of Yunfeng Financial, is likely to play a crucial role in the company's strategic decision-making.
What is Yunfeng Financial?
According to its official website, Yunfeng Financial is an innovative financial technology group listed on the main board of Hong Kong, with securities brokerage, asset management, insurance and financial technology business segments.
Yunfeng Financial's predecessor was Ruidong Group, a long-established Hong Kong securities firm. In 2015, Yunfeng Fund's controlling shareholder, Jade Passion Ltd., acquired approximately 56% of Ruidong's shares for HK$2.68 billion. Ruidong was renamed Yunfeng Financial in 2016.
Yunfeng Capital was jointly launched by Alibaba founder Jack Ma and Juzhong Media founder Yu Feng in 2010. It is a private equity investment institution that focuses on hard technology, enterprise services, green energy, modern agriculture, biotechnology, consumption and other fields.
Yu Feng currently serves as Chairman of Yunfeng Fund Management and Chairman and Non-Executive Director of Yunfeng Financial Group. He also serves as a director of Yunfeng Financial Holdings, Key Imagination, and Jade Passion, which are major shareholders of Yunfeng Financial.
Equity and control structure
First, the shareholdings of directors and key executives:
According to the 2025 interim report, Yu Feng (Chairman and Non-Executive Director) effectively controls 47.25% of Yunfeng Financial's shares through a multi-tiered holding structure. Specifically, Key Imagination Limited owns 73.21% of Jade Passion's issued share capital; Yunfeng Financial Holdings owns 91% of Key Imagination's issued share capital; and Yu Feng owns 70.15% of Yunfeng Financial Holdings' issued share capital. Both Key Imagination and Jade Passion are major shareholders of Yunfeng Financial.
2. Huang Xin, executive director of Yunfeng Financial, is the sole shareholder of Perfect Merit Limited, which in turn owns 900 shares in Key Imagination, representing a 9% stake in the company.
3. In addition to the above disclosures, Yunfeng Financial's mid-year report stated that as of June 30, 2025, the company's directors, senior executives and their affiliates had no holdings in the company's and its affiliates' shares or bonds that required special reporting.
Source: Yunfeng Financial 2025 Mid-Year Report
Next is the shareholdings of Yunfeng Financial's major shareholders and other individuals. The interests of major shareholders and other individuals holding 5% or more of Yunfeng Financial's issued shares are as follows:
1. As shown above, Yu Feng actually controls 47.25% of Yunfeng Financial's shares through a multi-layered holding structure.
2. Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, through its 100% holding company, MassMutual International LLC, holds 960,000,000 shares, representing a 24.82% stake.
3. Except for the two major shareholders mentioned above, no other person holds a 5% or more equity interest or short position in the Company.
Actress Zhao Wei's ex-husband, Huang Youlong, previously held a 26.79% stake in Jade Passion Limited and was a non-executive director of Yunfeng Financial. Huang resigned from that position in January 2018.
The roles of Ma Yun and Xiao Feng
The market speculates that although Jack Ma does not hold a management position in Yunfeng Financial, he still has a significant influence on the company's strategy by holding equity in entities related to Yunfeng Fund.
According to a report in the Shanghai Securities News in October 2024, Yunfeng Fund's affiliated company, Shanghai Yunfeng Investment Management Co., Ltd., changed its business registration on October 16, 2024, reducing its registered capital from 290 million yuan to 10 million yuan, a decrease of over 96.55%. Yunfeng Investment, established on July 1, 2010, serves as the executing entity for Yunfeng Fund's first RMB fund, with an initial registered capital of 10 million yuan. On December 9, 2013, after the first fund completed fundraising and entered the investment phase, the company's registered capital increased to 290 million yuan. Yu Feng holds a 60% stake, while Jack Ma holds a 40% stake.
The Shanghai Securities News reported that Yunfeng Capital subsequently underwent several investor changes. Prior to the capital reduction, Huang Xin invested 174 million yuan, holding a 60% stake and becoming the largest shareholder; Jack Ma invested 116 million yuan, holding a 40% stake and becoming the second-largest shareholder. Following the capital reduction, Huang Xin's and Ma's contributions were reduced to 6 million yuan and 4 million yuan, respectively, maintaining their respective holdings of 60% and 40%. It is currently unclear what subsequent equity changes have taken place, nor is the specific extent of Ma's holdings in Yunfeng Financial.
Another key figure , Xiao Feng, has served as an independent non-executive director of Yunfeng Financial since March 2019. As a leading figure in China's blockchain sector and Chairman of Wanxiang Blockchain, Xiao Feng, while not involved in day-to-day operations, may provide professional judgment and oversight to the board on major strategic decisions, particularly regarding Web3, digital currencies, and blockchain investments. It is widely believed that he provided important guidance on Yunfeng Financial's recent investments in the Ethereum and Pharos public chains.
Source: Yunfeng Financial
Yunfeng Financial's recent Web3 initiatives
Since July 2025, Yunfeng Financial has been advancing its Web3 blueprint step by step with a clear rhythm and strong execution:
In July, Yunfeng Financial Group announced that, based on its existing insurance and financial technology businesses, it would strategically deploy cutting-edge fields such as Web 3.0, real-world assets (RWA), digital currencies, ESG zero-carbon assets, and artificial intelligence (AI), as well as explore innovations that connect the above-mentioned cutting-edge fields with various application scenarios of the group's insurance companies.
In its interim results report submitted in August 2025, Yunfeng Financial Group stated that it plans to enter the new era of Web3. Its securities license subsidiary has applied to the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) for upgrades to licenses No. 1, 4, and 9. Upon approval, the upgrade will enable it to provide a full range of virtual asset-related trading services and manage investment portfolios in virtual assets. Yunfeng Financial's official website shows that its subsidiaries hold financial services licenses No. 1, 4, and 9 granted by the SFC. Furthermore, the group, through its controlling stake in YF Life Insurance International Limited, holds a long-term insurance business license from the Hong Kong Insurance Authority and an approved trustee qualification for the Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) scheme in Hong Kong.
"Carbon Chain" Project : On August 29, Yunfeng Financial Wantong Insurance Holdings Co., Ltd. and the Macau International Carbon Emissions Exchange announced the completion of the full on-chain uploading of carbon credit asset trading data, officially launching the "Carbon Chain" (Carbon Trading BlockChain) project focusing on high-quality carbon credits.
Yunfeng Financial Group announced a strategic partnership with Ant Digital Technology and a strategic investment in the Pharos public blockchain on September 1st. The two companies will collaborate on compliant development of cutting-edge technologies such as the tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs) and the next-generation internet (Web3) through the high-performance Pharos public blockchain platform.
Purchase of 10,000 ETH as a Strategic Reserve Asset : On September 2nd, Yunfeng Financial Group announced that its Board of Directors has approved the purchase of Ethereum (ETH) on the open market as a reserve asset. As of the date of this announcement, the Group has purchased a total of 10,000 ETH on the open market, with a total investment cost of US$44 million (from the Group's internal cash reserves). Going forward, the company will continue to increase its investment in digital assets. The Board of Directors believes that incorporating ETH into the company's strategic reserve assets is consistent with the Group's development in cutting-edge fields such as Web3 and can provide critical infrastructure support for the tokenization of real-world assets (RWA). Furthermore, Yunfeng Financial will explore potential application models for ETH in the Group's insurance business, as well as innovative business scenarios compatible with Web3. Furthermore, using ETH as a reserve asset will optimize the Group's asset structure and reduce its reliance on traditional currencies.
In addition to ETH, Yunfeng Financial plans to explore incorporating diversified mainstream digital assets including Bitcoin (BTC) and SOL into the company's strategic reserve assets.
Yunfeng Financial clearly stated that the purchase of ETH is not only to optimize the asset structure, but also to support the infrastructure of RWA tokenization activities, promote the group's technological innovation in the Web3 field, and explore the potential application of ETH in the insurance business (such as policy mortgage, payment, etc.).
summary
Yunfeng Financial's recent series of actions have outlined a complete roadmap for traditional financial technology companies to transform into Web3: from top-level strategic design, to talent and license preparation, to partnership and infrastructure construction (Ant, Pharos), and finally to direct asset allocation (purchase of ETH).
This is far more than a simple speculative investment, but rather a well-considered, systematic strategic upgrade. Its core purpose is to seize the initiative in the future Web3 finance, which will be comprised of RWA tokenization, digital currency, and DeFi, by embracing blockchain technology, and become a bridge connecting the traditional and digital worlds.
