An active bifunctional nickel catalyst was prepared by decomposing Ni(CO)4 to highly dispersed metallic Ni onto Hβ zeolite and first applied in hydroconverting benzyloxybenzene (BOB), which was used as a lignin-related model compound. Ni/Hβ proved to be effective for converting BOB to bicyclic cyclanes (BCCs) via CalkO bond cleavage induced by H+ addition, benzylium addition to 2- and 4-positions in