To commence our studies, the reaction between 5aminopyrazoles 1a 8 and α,β-unsaturated 2-acyl imidazole 2a was conducted in the presence of 11 mol % of L1 and 10 mol % of Ni(OTf)2 in DCM at room temperature, resulting in the esterified Michael addition/Cyclization 9 product 3a in 97% yield with 98% ee (Table , entry 1). Inspired by this promising result, a variety of Ni(OTf)2 with different chiral ligands were investigated in the title reaction (entries 2-5). To our delight, L2-L4 obtained excellent enantioselectivity, giving the desired product in 95-96% yield with 95-98% ee (entries 2-4). While in the presence of L5, the reaction could afford product 3a with 72% ee (entry 5). Next, we screened the metal and found that Ni(OTf)2 is still the best. Further screening of solvents revealed that DCM was still the best solvent. Further decreasing the catalyst loading to 5.5 mol % of L1 and 5 mol % of Ni(OTf)2, the reaction could still maintain the reactivity and generate desired product 3a in 97% yield with 98% ee (entry 13). With the optimized reaction conditions in hand, a variety of 5-aminopyrazoles 1 were employed to test the generality of this asymmetric Michael addition/Cyclization process (Scheme 2). Initially, 5-aminopyrazoles with electrondonating substituted phenyl ring were evaluated, such as methoxyl, and 3b in good yield (89%) with excellent enantioselectivity (98%) was achieved. The introduction of electron-withdrawing groups such as F and Cl substituents on the phenyl rings also afforded the corresponding products (3c-3e) in 85-90% yields with 95-99% ee values. 5-aminopyrazole bearing hetero-aromatic substituent could afford the desired products 3f with excellent enantioselectivity (98% ee). Furthermore, the replacement of N-t Bu with Bn of 5aminopyrazole has no influence on the outcome of the reaction, affording the corresponding product 3g in excellent yield with excellent enantioselectivity (Scheme 2, 3g, 91%, 95% ee).