UK hedge fund reportedly plans to invest $84M in crypto

Brevan Howard, a United Kingdom-based asset management firm, is reportedly planning to directly invest in digital assets after more than a year of exposure to the crypto space.

According to a Bloomberg report, Brevan Howard Asset Management will be allocating 1.5% of the $5.6 billion in its main hedge fund to crypto — roughly $84 million. A source with knowledge of the matter said two co-founders of crypto investment firm Distributed Global, Johnny Steindorff and Tucker Waterman, would be leading Brevan Howard’s foray into crypto.

The asset management firm will reportedly be focusing on “a wide range” of cryptocurrencies in addition to Bitcoin (BTC), betting that the price of the crypto asset will continue to rise. At the time of publication, BTC's price is $62,775, having fallen 1.3% in the last 24 hours.

The potential investment from a major hedge fund wouldn’t be the first time Brevan Howard has had exposure to the crypto market. The firm’s billionaire co-founder Alan Howard has a 25% stake with One River Digital Asset Management, a United States-based hedge fund that purchased $600 million worth of Bitcoin and Ether (ETH) last year.

Part of a seemingly growing trend among hedge funds, Brevan Howard is not alone in dipping its toes into crypto markets. In February, New York-based global investment firm M31 Capital filed paperwork with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to launch a Bitcoin hedge fund. Billionaire hedge fund manager and philanthropist Ray Dalio has also called Bitcoin “one hell of an invention” and compared it to gold.

Cointelegraph reached out to Brevan Howard but did not receive a response at the time of publication.