When a shell company called Laurore Ltd. filed approximately $436 million in positions in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) exchange-traded fund (its first and only filing), listing a Hong Kong address and phone number, the crypto community took notice and a social media frenzy began.
What’s even more interesting is that “Zhang Hui” is listed as a director in filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). According to an X post by ProCap CIO Jeff Park, the name is as common in China as “John Smith” in the West.
In fact, CoinDesk found that more than 100 Zhang Huis are listed as directors of various companies in Hong Kong’s company register.
(Hong Kong company register)
This sparked a week of speculation that Chinese capital could enter the crypto market through spot Bitcoin purchases. $BTC$64,502.52 Exchange traded fund.
“It smells like capital flight to me,” Park said in the post. Bloomberg’s ETF analysts echoed this sentiment, with James Seifert replying to the post: “I spent nearly an hour trying to figure this out early this morning and couldn’t come to any conclusions.”
The mystery became even more interesting when CoinDesk visited the Hong Kong address listed in Laure’s SEC filing.
The building directory shows that the suite was occupied by Avecamour Advice Ltd, not Laurore. Additionally, Laurore, which owns IBIT shares, is not incorporated in Hong Kong.
After CoinDesk attempted to locate someone at Laure for comment, the company finally broke its silence. A spokesperson said the company’s owners prefer to keep a low profile and declined to provide further details.
But there are still more questions than answers.
Who is Avecamour? What is the relationship between the two companies? And how does the mysterious “Zhang Hui” fit into all this?
“Private company”
CoinDesk reviewed company filings and found that Avecamour Advice is wholly owned by Avecamour Ltd., a British Virgin Islands corporation.
Zhang Hui, whose mainland Chinese passport number matches his, is also the only director on the board of Avecamour Advice, which was incorporated in March 2025, according to Hong Kong company registration records. No other public information about Avecamour or its stakeholders was found.
(Hong Kong company register)
“Laurore’s owner is also a board member of Avecamour,” a Laurore spokesperson told CoinDesk, hinting that Zhang Hui is the owner of the mysterious company.
However, the spokesperson did not provide further details about Zhang Hui or the two companies.
“Our principals prefer to keep a low profile and this position (with IBIT) simply reflects their personal investment beliefs,” the spokesperson said.
In fact, while the 13F filing identifies the reporting administrator, it does not require disclosure of the ultimate beneficiary. Large investors often hold positions through multiple legal vehicles for structural, custody, or privacy reasons.
“As these are private companies, we do not disclose ownership details,” the spokesperson said.
What exactly does this mean?
When it is “capital flight” in this context, it means moving funds from mainland China via Hong Kong to offshore assets such as US-listed Bitcoin ETFs, potentially diversifying wealth beyond the reach of domestic capital controls.
But it could also mean that Lalor is simply part of a fund or family office affiliated with a larger Hong Kong-based company that invests in Bitcoin ETFs. If so, it would mean that the illiquidity and high fees of Hong Kong Exchange-listed Bitcoin ETFs have led Hong Kong-based funds to choose allocations to U.S.-listed IBIT, which is much more liquid and has a lower cost for institutional investors to park their funds.
But for now, the identity of Lowroll and its mysterious principal remains as clear as Bitcoin’s Satoshi Nakamoto.
Read more: United States $BTC ETFs bring dwarf capital into Hong Kong as local investors stick to stocks
