Brevan Howard Hires Dragonfly Capital Veteran as Digital Portfolio Manager

The traditional finance giant's pickup of Kevin Hu adds to a wave of senior hires for its digital assets arm.

AccessTimeIconJan 26, 2023 at 8:37 p.m. UTC
Updated May 9, 2023 at 4:06 a.m. UTC
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The digital assets arm of traditional finance giant Brevan Howard has hired a new portfolio manager, Dragonfly Capital veteran Kevin Hu. He will be based in Brevan Howard’s new Abu Dhabi office and will report to BH Digital CEO Gautam Sharma, according to a press release.

Brevan Howard, which had $25 billion in assets under management as of July, created its Brevan Howard Digital division in September 2021 to give institutional investors access to blockchain-related investment opportunities. Last summer the firm said it was raising at least $1 billion for a record-breaking crypto hedge fund, and that strategy started to emerge through filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Bloomberg reported in December the fund had made it through the market volatility with only a 5% loss.

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  • Hu joined Dragonfly Capital, a crypto-focused investment banking firm, in 2019 as a general partner and head of liquid strategy. He previously spent three years as an associate at BlackRock with the Alternative Investment Group. In April, Dragonfly closed its third fund, with $650 million in committed capital to invest in blockchain and crypto companies creating “new digital economies.” The same month, Brevan Howard participated in the $70 million funding round for Bitcoin protocol Lightning Labs.

    “As we continue to strengthen our position as a leading institutional digital assets investment platform, we are thrilled to have Kevin join our expanding team. Kevin’s significant experience investing in digital assets and managing liquid strategies is a welcome addition to our growing pool of exceptional talent,” Sharma said in the press release.

    Hu is the third recent senior hire at BH Digital, following Galaxy Digital veteran Robert Bogucki’s appointment as senior portfolio manager in the trading strategy and Blockchain.com alum Lewis Tuff, who became the chief technology officer of BH Digital.

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    Brandy Betz

    Brandy covered crypto-related venture capital deals for CoinDesk.


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