An ambitious bid to establish a $1 billion Ethereum digital asset trust (DAT) has been quietly abandoned as the market slump deepens, with all funds returned to contributors, according to sources who spoke with WuBlockchain.

The DAT initiative, which first surfaced in Bloomberg reporting in early October, was led by Huobi founder Li Lin, Fenbushi Capital co-founder Shen Bo, HashKey Group CEO Xiao Feng, and veteran investor Cai Wensheng.

The consortium reportedly secured nearly $1 billion and intended to acquire a Nasdaq-listed shell company to create a regulated, Ether-focused trust for institutional clients.

However, the abrupt market sell-off on October 11 forced the group to halt the effort to form one of Asia’s largest institutional Ethereum initiatives.