Alan Howard's adventure in Kryptoland

based on cryptocurrency trivia games, non-fungible tokens for horse races and data protection specialists, according to an analysis of the Financial Times, are all part of a large and growing empire for digital assets that the media-shy hedge fund billionaire Alan Howard has built in.

Thanks to the success of Brevan Howard Asset Management, the $ 23 billion of macro trading companies, which he co-founded,

Howard is an influential personality in the hedge fund industry. In recent years, however, he has slowly given up some of his roles at the company to become an important force in the crypto venture capital in both Europe and the USA.

The FT has put together a list of 43 investments by Howard in crypto companies and projects-from well-known companies such as the FTX stock exchange to a start-up linkator and smaller NFT projects-based on information from the risk capital databases Crunchbase, PitchBook and Public Announcements.

Howard has made its investments in the past five years, sometimes together with large private equity groups such as Tiger Global, Softbank and Peter Thiel.

"It looks incredibly accidental until you put it on a card, and then it looks incredibly strategic," said a manager of a crypto company who worked with Howard. "He wants to be involved in all facets in the industry."

Howard's interest in cryptocurrencies, according to people who worked with him, began in 2017, and despite the wild heights and depths of the market, he continued to invest in the sector.

"He has a 10 to 15-year vision. While everyone went out, he ran in," said the manager about Howard's decision to continue investing in companies during the 2018 crypto bankruptcy. The pace of these investments has accelerated in the past two years and has continued despite the brutal sale in recent months.

Howard, who refused to be interviewed for this article, has a lower profile as other large crypto investors such as Mike Novogratz from Galaxy Digital. However, he has invested in projects alongside Galaxy, including the Bullish Global and Derby Stars stock exchange, which describes himself as "a horse race meta verse game" in which players can breed, grow and act.

Industry leaders say that the width of Howard's investment portfolio makes him an important force in the industry alongside Galaxy and the Currency Group, based in Connecticut.

"You have very large ambitions in terms of crypto," said a crypto investor who worked directly with Howard.

Howard has rarely spoke publicly about his hedge fund or crypto investments, even though he made a comment in an email interview that was published by the crypto news website The Block in May.

Howard said that crypto was "an important macrotrend", but since digital assets are still a rather new investment class, "it is the smartest to invest in the entire crypto ecosystem in a very diversified way".

I would not be surprised if he was one of the greatest players on the other side of this Baisse

In recent years,

hedge funds have increasingly been interested in cryptoinvestment, whereby the enormous growth and enormous returns attract the attention of an industry that has sometimes had difficulty making money in the past ten years. For this reason, many hedge funds also started trading with crypto.

"While we see a number of macro investment managers who take up a crypto fund or consider the laying of a crypto fund.. Perform Due Diligence Services.

Howard, who had married at a wasteful event on Lake Como's banks last month, resigned from some of his hedge fund roles in 2019 when he handed over the position of Chief Executive from Brevan Howard to Chief Risk Officer Aron Landy. Although he continues to control the company according to the official documents.

This happened when Brevan Howard recovered from a long series of weak performance when the company's master fund, who had never suffered a bad year before, lost money between 2014 and 2017 in three out of four calendar years and broke the company's assets from $ 40 to $ 6 billion. Last year, Howard repaid external investors in the AH fund he has personally managed, which in 2018 made enormous profits out of the shock of Italian bonds. Although he continues to have a trading book as part of the master fund, he rarely acts, said confidants with the company.

However,

He is still actively involved in Brevan Howard's 1 billion dollar-digital assets fund. "Alan focuses so much on digital assets," said a hedge fund investor.

A person who is familiar with Howard's view said that he was “very involved.

Howard told The Block in May that “BH Digital reflects my conviction, how important it is to invest in diversified and well -controlled ways over the entire ecosystem regardless of the instrument.”

his willingness to buy crypto systems is in direct contrast to some other investors who have preferred to buy investments in companies that work in the cryptos sector.

Howard said that the financing of risk capital and the direct investment in crypto tokens and currencies should be considered together, since crypto projects often go to the stock exchange very early by selling tokens to investors.

With its risk capital investments, the list of deals also shows that it is investing in most crypto categories in the Howard, tends to support more than one company and the entire market.

For example, he has invested in at least three stock exchanges and three depot banks, companies that keep digital assets for customers. He has also supported companies that develop cryptopolic and portfolio management software, as well as several investment funds that work in the field of digital assets.

Other important parts of his crypto portfolio are Elwood, a trading software company that start-up-incubator Webn Group and Coremont Digital, the cryptofocussed branch of the back office company, which emerged from Brevan Howard. All three share a central London office with Brevan Howard.

Away from companies that provide crypto market infrastructure, Howard has also made more niche investments. In November he invested in a fundraising campaign by Iron Fish, a developer who works on a technology to enable completely private cryptocurrency transactions.

Howard is known for his long-term approach, but his crypto portfolio has recorded some exits. The newcastle-based crypto payment company Bottlepay was sold to the US crypta group Nydig last year, while the institutional trading platform Omniex was taken over by the Gemini group of the Winklevoss-Zwillings in January.

Howard's personal proportion of Elwood sank when the company raised $ 70 million in external investments by donors such as Goldman Sachs and Barclays with an assessment of around $ 500 million. He did not take part in the round, but remains a majority owner.

He is also known as an art collector and is interested in “generative” digital art that has its roots in the computer art of the 1960s. It promotes the sector through a monthly digital art salon in London.

Although the current market deposition has put many potential crypto investors off, it offers opportunities for patient, well-financed investors such as Howard.

"In my opinion he knows what he is doing. He works with the smartest in the crypto industry and is very well advised," said the investor, who worked with Howard.

"I would not be surprised if he would come out of this Baisse next to Galaxy as one of the greatest players. He positions himself to benefit from reviews."