Aberrant expression of miR-511 is involved in the development of cancer, but the role of miR-511 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is not well documented. In this study, we explored the molecular mechanisms of miR-511 in hepatocarcinogenesis. Our results of bioinformatics analysis suggested that B cell translocation gene 1 (BTG1), a member of anti-proliferative gene family, was one of the putative targets of miR-511. The expression levels of miR-511 were significantly higher in 30 clinical HCC tissues than in corresponding peritumor tissues, and were negatively correlated with those of BTG1 in the HCC tissues (r=-0.6105, P<0.01). In human hepatoma cell lines HepG2 and H7402, overexpression of miR-511 dose-dependently inhibited the expression of BTG1, whereas knockdown of miR-511 dose-dependently increased the expression of BTG1. Luciferase reporter gene assays verified that miR-511 targeted the 3'UTR of BTG1 mRNA. In the hepatoma cells, overexpression of miR-511 significantly decreased BTG1-induced G1 phase arrest, which was rescued by overexpression of BTG1. Furthermore, overexpression of miR-511 promoted the proliferation of the hepatoma cells, which was rescued by overexpression of BTG1. Conversely, knockdown of miR-511 inhibited cell proliferation, which was reversed by knockdown of BTG1. In conclusion, miR-511 promotes the proliferation of human hepatoma cells in vitro by targeting the 3'UTR of BTG1 mRNA.