Brevan Howard’s pitch to deep-pocketed investors: The ‘true risk’ of crypto is not having exposure

• Brevan Howard believes institutions are close to diving into crypto after years of weariness.
• The firm’s digital assets unit was up more than 52% in 2024 and employs more than 60 people.
• Brevan Howard Digital aims to be “the leading asset manager for institutional investors” in crypto.

Aron Landy — the CEO of $34 billion macro investment manager Brevan Howard — believes the “tipping point” that will lead institutional investors to pile into crypto is on the horizon.

Years of volatility and big-name bad actors have kept institutions away from digital assets. Still, with a new administration in the US and asset managers like BlackRock and Fidelity becoming more entrenched in the space, the world’s biggest investors will slowly wade into the space — and then dive fully in. London-based Brevan Howard, through its $2.5 billion stand-alone crypto unit that was up over 52% last year, is aiming to be the place to go for crypto-curious institutions.

“The predominant mindset in the institutional space has been that any exposure to digital assets is a little too volatile,” Landy told Business Insider. “I believe that a shift in mindset is happening and that soon, even this year, having zero exposure to digital assets will be the true risk.”

“At the moment, it’s kind of a separate asset class, but over time, there’ll be a convergence,” he added.

That convergence may be sped up by President Donald Trump’s administration. After years of frustration under former President Joe Biden’s SEC commissioner Gary Gensler, President Donald Trump, and his crypto czar David Sacks have provided a jolt to the space.

While some have been frustrated with the administration’s crypto agenda, including the creation of meme coins related to Trump and the first lady, Melania Trump, and the strategic reserve of different digital assets, the election was a positive change for the industry, said Gautam Sharma, the CEO and chief investment officer of Brevan Howard Digital. Sharma declined to provide additional comment on the creation of the reserve.

The size of the talent pool and the amount of capital in the US means the “vibe” around an industry can matter just as much as a specific policy, Sharma said.

Brevan thinks of the industry as a “transformational technology” akin to the internet, Landy said, and “any new innovation needs two things: talent and capital,” Sharma said. The two executives said there should be plenty of momentum to attract ambitious young people to the industry.

“The digital asset universe has tailwinds, not headwinds,” Landy said.

Inside Brevan Howard Digital

September will be the unit’s fourth anniversary, and Sharma told BI that the goal remains the same as when they launched in 2021.

“Our objective is to be the leading asset manager for institutional investors in digital assets,” he said, noting that the manager is working on a few additional products for institutional investors to add alongside its flagship multi-manager crypto fund.

As the digital asset space becomes more integrated into financial institutions and accepted by regulators, big-name asset managers will follow suit. Former crypto critics, like Citadel Securities’ Ken Griffin, are embracing the space and building out their offerings because of the tailwinds.

Among alternative investors, especially those catering to large institutional investors like sovereign wealth and pension funds, Brevan has a relative headstart thanks partly to its founder, billionaire Alan Howard.

Howard has been interested in the space for close to a decade and started investing his personal capital in 2016 and has seen firsthand how the industry has changed, Sharma said.

“Alan understands this space better than most, not just the investing side of it but the systems,” said Sharma, who previously ran internal projects for the hedge fund and oversaw the buildout of the digital assets business alongside Natalie Smith, the firm’s head of strategy and client partnership group. Howard’s enthusiasm led Brevan Howard Digital to focus not just on hiring investing staff, technologists, and engineers. The firm built the unit’s infrastructure from scratch over six months in 2021 and now has a team of more than 60 people in eight offices that can trade around the clock.

Thinking long-term

A person close to Brevan said the firm’s digital asset investment products have “relatively long lock-up periods” to help the firm withstand volatility.

It aligns with the firm’s belief that small bumps in the road will be just that: bumps in the road. The digital asset industry “could be worth many multiples than what it is now,” Landy said, and the firm wants to partner with institutions willing to back that long-term vision.

The separate digital-asset unit invests in liquid coins such as Bitcoin but also options, derivatives, and private stakes in startups. Brevan Howard Digital also helps diversity the firm’s largest multistrategy funds, managing sleeves of capital for the $12 billion master fund.

“The reason to invest is not because it’s going up, or that it’s gone down and therefore cheap,” but instead to be exposed to something transformational for all industries, Landy said. The firm’s conviction in the industry comes not just from Howard’s personal interest, but the many engineers and technologists inside the firm who have been passionate about the space for years, he said.

“From a macro investing perspective, investors should have some exposure to it,” he said, and the firm is ready for the “tipping point” that will lead to institutions flooding in.

“Having some exposure will be the norm,” Landy said, and those who choose Brevan “invest with us because they want our expertise.”