Will Brevan Howard’s Crypto Arm Have Another Successful Year in 2025?

Brevan Howard, a global alternative investment manager that began as a macro hedge fund in 2002, has had an underwhelming start to 2025. Bloomberg reported in April that the $11.4 billion Brevan Master Fund reduced its performance fees by 33% and offered clients lower management fees, a move the firm framed as a way to secure capital for longer periods. The fund was down 5.8% year to date. Other strategies fared better: Alpha Strategies was up 1.5% in the first quarter and the Emerging Markets fund made 4%. The performance decline followed a January decision to cut 7% of hedge fund trading staff globally.

The firm's crypto arm, BH Digital, offers a multi-strategy approach spanning liquid coins such as bitcoin, options, derivatives and private stakes in startups. The division lists 15 blockchain engineers, which the article describes as unusual for a hedge fund. Its digital assets unit was reported to have gained 52% in 2024, and the firm has stated its ambition to become a leading asset manager for institutional investors in digital assets. With revenue down in 2025, however, the unit faces a challenge in matching last year's results. BH Digital manages $2.4 billion, and the firm has built relationships in the digital asset ecosystem, including a partnership with Aptos, a DeFi-focused network.

Brevan Howard also tokenized the Brevan Howard Master Fund in 2024, a fund the article values at $4 billion. In April 2025, Standard Chartered announced a collateral mirroring programme enabling institutional clients to use cryptocurrencies and tokenized money market funds as off-exchange collateral for trading, and Brevan Howard was among the first institutions to onboard. Ryan Taylor, Group Head of Compliance at Brevan Howard and Chief Administrative Officer of BH Digital, said the programme reflects continued institutionalisation of the industry. The article notes the firm's Abu Dhabi base and Standard Chartered relationship as advantages over competitors such as JP Morgan. The article also cites investments in crypto-native businesses including Plume, Kinto and Libre. The open question, according to the article, is whether BH Digital can repeat its strong performance from the first half of 2024.