Shalini Nagarajan

<div id="highlights-block_62d143002f75d" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Howard is reportedly working with a horizon of 10 to 15 years with regard to the crypto industry</li>
 <li>His latest investments were a crypto brand studio and a &#8216;play-to-earn&#8217; metaverse startup</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



British billionaire Alan Howard is among crypto investors who aren’t backing down throughout the recent turmoil.&nbsp;



The 58-year-old hedge manager is still investing in the space. In mid-June, Howard took part in a $10.3 million pre-seed round for crypto brand studio <a href="https://www.sciencemagicstudios.xyz/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ScienceMagic.Studios</a>, notably after Terra collapsed.



He also participated in ‘play-to-earn’ metaverse startup Atmos Labs’ $11 million seed round, which closed around the same time — when crypto lenders were causing contagion across the market.



Howard has already funded 13 crypto-related projects so far in 2022, although most were before crypto markets tanked. He’s backed about 40 cryptocurrency projects overall, including exchanges FTX and Bitpanda, Polygon, Ledn and Block.one, <a href="https://www.crunchbase.com/person/alan-howard-2/person_overview_investor/investments" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Crunchbase data</a> shows.



The billionaire, whose hedge fund firm Brevan Howard <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/hedge-fund-manager-brevan-howard-investing-in-digital-assets/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">began trading cryptocurrencies</a> last year, has invested his personal wealth into digital assets for several years. His first known investment was in European online broker <a href="https://www.nextmarkets.com/en/home" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">nextmarkets</a> in 2016. 



The <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/mainstream-hedge-funds-pour-billions-of-dollars-into-crypto-11646808223" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Wall Street Journal</a> reported in March that Howard personally bought cryptocurrencies to protect against inflation, but it isn’t clear which asset or how much of it he bought.



It now appears that he wants to be involved in every sub-segment of the crypto industry.&nbsp;Forbes <a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/alan-howard/?sh=175ab8e20adc" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">values</a> Howard&#8217;s personal wealth at $3.2 billion.



The <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/e89061dd-634e-4024-b74a-5a102d4eb552?shareType=nongift" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Financial Times</a> reported Friday that key names in his crypto portfolio are trading-software firm Elwood, startup incubator WebN Group and Coremont, an operational services platform spun out of Brevan Howard.



Some of Howard&#8217;s investments from last year include crypto exchange Bullish, fintech firm Bottlepay, custody startup Komainu and privacy blockchain startup Iron Fish — showing diversification in his investments.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Alan Howard&#8217;s firm making &#8216;massive&#8217; crypto push</h3>



One crypto executive who worked with Howard told the FT the billionaire has a 10- to 15-year vision, and that he piled into the sector when everyone ran out during the 2018 crypto crash.



He’s also said to have active participation with Brevan Howard’s <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/sources-brevan-howard-launches-first-digital-assets-fund-in-massive-crypto-push/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$1 billion crypto </a>vehicle, the BH Digital Multi-Strategy Fund, which invests in liquid cryptoassets and takes stakes in private blockchain companies. 



A source <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/sources-brevan-howard-launches-first-digital-assets-fund-in-massive-crypto-push/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told</a> Blockworks earlier this year that Brevan was making an “absolutely massive push into crypto.” According to latest figures, the firm last managed total assets worth $23 billion.



Howard, formerly Brevan Howard’s CEO, began to take more of a backseat at the fund when he handed over the reins to chief risk officer Aron Landy in 2019. Howard still controls the firm overall.&nbsp;



The recent market downturn has put off several investors, but long-term players are generally unfazed by such slumps. Chris McCann, a partner at Race Capital and early FTX backer, <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/sam-bankman-fried-out-to-win-whole-crypto-market-early-ftx-backer-says/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told Blockworks</a> that the worst times are typically the best for venture investments.



Representatives for Brevan Howard didn’t respond to Blockworks’ request for comment by press time.



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Hedge Fund Billionaire Alan Howard is Still Backing Crypto Startups

Morgan Chittum

<div id="highlights-block_62334f9f52f94" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Participants include Pantera, Brevan Howard, Alan Howard, Amber Group, Blockchain.com, Circle Ventures and Finality Capital Partners</li>
 <li>The capital will go toward “opening up more grant programs, such as a more robust grant program to support developers,” according to Mina Foundation’s Evan Shapiro</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Blockchain protocol Mina secured $92 million in a funding round led by FTX Ventures and Singaporean hedge fund Three Arrows Capital.



The capital will go toward “opening up more grant programs,” to “support developers,” Evan Shapiro, chief executive at Mina Foundation, told Blockworks.&nbsp;



“This [investment] from some of the most respected entities in crypto bolsters our aim to ensure that Mina becomes the go-to privacy and end-to-end security layer for Web3 while remaining powered by participants,” Shapiro said.



Other investors in the round include Pantera, Brevan Howard, Alan Howard, Amber Group, Blockchain.com, Circle Ventures and Finality Capital Partners.



Mina is the creator of a proof-of-stake protocol which bills itself as the “world’s lightest blockchain.” The project uses recursive zero-knowledge proofs to keep the state of the network at a tiny 22 kilobits (kb) — about 2,800 characters or 10 tweets. For comparison, Bitcoin’s blockchain <a href="https://ycharts.com/indicators/bitcoin_blockchain_size" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">is currently</a> about 396GB, while Ethereum <a href="https://ycharts.com/indicators/ethereum_chain_full_sync_data_size" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">weighs in</a> at 601GB to sync the full chain.



Imagine taking a picture of a sunset while on vacation in Hawaii to prove you were there. Now, someone takes a picture of your picture. Only, unlike with snapshot photos, a cryptographic technique known as <a href="https://minaprotocol.com/blog/what-are-zk-snarks" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">zk-SNARKS</a> allows the second picture holder to prove with certainty that you were there in Hawaii just as well as you yourself could.



In theory, the blockchain&#8217;s small size means Mina could more easily <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/measuring-decentralization-is-your-crypto-decentralized/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">decentralize</a>, because node operators do not require a significant investment in hardware. Developers of both Ethereum and Bitcoin have plans to allow for so-called “<a href="https://eth.wiki/en/concepts/light-client-protocol" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">light clients</a>” that would use similar techniques to function without a full copy of the chain history.



But on Mina, all participants act as full nodes and take part in maintaining consensus, <a href="https://minaprotocol.com/blog/what-is-ouroboros-samisika" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">using a variation</a> of the Ouroboros proof-of-stake protocol that was first developed for Cardano.



The system relies on another network participant dubbed a “prover” (a bit like <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/the-investors-guide-to-bitcoin-mining/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a Bitcoin miner</a>, but without the energy use) which does need to store the full state.



There is a downside to computing zero-knowledge proofs, however: <a href="https://youtu.be/EugpncZGNnU?t=345" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Mina’s 1 transactions-per-second</a> (TPS) rate makes it considerably slower than alternative layer-1 chains like Cosmos and Solana, and even slower than the Bitcoin network’s 7 TPS.



The team prefers to focus on a different mental model for scalability, <a href="https://minaprotocol.com/blog/solving-the-scalability-trilemma" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">they call ScaDe</a>, for Scalability-per-unit-of-Decentralization.



Mina is “built for mass adoption at both the user and application level,” Brian Lee, a partner at FTX Ventures, told Blockworks, adding that it will “enable a new generation of Web3 applications.”



Last year, the blockchain <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/business/2021/05/05/lightweight-mina-blockchain-raises-187m-in-coinlist-token-sale/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">raised $18.7 million</a> in its token sale on CoinList.&nbsp;



Macauley Peterson contributed reporting for this story.



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FTX Ventures, Three Arrows Capital Lead $92M Raise for Mina Blockchain

Michael Bodley

<div id="highlights-block_621f7231619aa" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Nested allows user to mint an NFT that replicates their investment portfolios</li>
 <li>Trades are tracked via smart contracts that update the digital collectible, eliminating the need to mint a fresh NFT with each transaction</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



A DeFi platform, with a social investing twist that allows users to showcase their investment strategies via NFTs, has raised a $7.5 million round led by billionaire Alan Howard.



Nested Finance intends to use the Series A round to hire staffers, expand to additional blockchains and ramp up its staking capabilities, founder Rudy Kadoch told Blockworks.



Aside from Howard, investors including CMT Digital, <a href="https://kenetic.capital" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Kenetic Capital</a> and Republic Capital also participated in the round. 



The startup allows users to mint an NFT (non-fungible token) on a supported blockchain of their choice that uses smart contracts to exhibit their DeFi (decentralized finance) trades on Nested’s platform. Traders — the majority are retail investors — are responsible for covering the costs of minting the NFT.



Supported blockchains now include <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/?s=avalanche" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Avalanche</a>, Binance Smart Chain — now <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/in-overture-to-decentralization-binance-rebrands-its-blockchain/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">known as BNB Chain</a> — and <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/?s=polygon" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Polygon</a>.&nbsp;



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“Even if you are not a famous person on Twitter, you can create a reputation on Nested,” Kadoch said.&nbsp;</blockquote>



Once minted, the NFT is updated via smart contract to display new trades in real-time, eliminating the need to mint a fresh digital collectible as a trader’s portfolio shifts over time. Users do not connect their Nested portfolio to a centralized crypto exchange; liquidity is provided from the decentralized exchange 0x.



Nested, which allows users to replicate another trader’s portfolio, is betting on surging interest in crowdsourced alpha driven by social media success stories. The idea, Kadoch said, is to bring a clean, streamlined interface to the messy world of DeFi to cut through the crypto noise.



The startup’s founder likened the company to the early days of Coinbase, when the exchange brought crypto trading to the masses.



“Ten years ago, you were able to buy cryptocurrencies, but when Coinbase came, their plan was to democratize cryptocurrencies through a beautiful UX and succeeded with that,” he said.&nbsp;



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“This is exactly what we want to do with Nested: Democratize DeFi through simplicity.&#8221;</blockquote>



Nested makes money by charging a nominal fee on each new NFT. When users create an account, they have the option of copying an existing NFT on the marketplace — replicating its trades in the process — or starting from scratch. Traders receive a royalty payout each time their portfolio is copied.



Kadoch said the thousands of DeFi coins trading creates a bottleneck when it comes to breaking into the space.



“Current exchanges are built for [hardcore] users and not for the masses,” he said.



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



Correction — March 2, 2022 at 9:45 am ET: The lead investor is Alan Howard, unconnected to the European asset management firm Brevan Howard.



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DeFi Trading Platform Raises Round Led by Alan Howard in Social Investing Push

<div id="highlights-block_61e722ee1b7fa" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>The firm’s co-founder, Alan Howard, has made crypto investments with his personal wealth for several years</li>
 <li>BH Digital, the asset manager’s crypto division, has 25 employees and continues to grow</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Hedge fund firm Brevan Howard has launched its first dedicated crypto fund with 10 teams of portfolio managers and bold fundraising aspirations, according to two people familiar with the matter.



The flagship vehicle, BH Digital Multi-Strategy Fund, started trading earlier this month with a sizable amount of internal capital, sources said. The plan is to start broadly raising outside money in the second quarter — and expectations are that fundraising haul would amount to at least several hundred million dollars and perhaps more than $1 billion.



Sources were granted anonymity to discuss sensitive business dealings. A spokesperson for Brevan Howard declined to comment.&nbsp;



The fund is the inaugural vehicle of BH Digital, the new Brevan Howard unit dedicated to the global macro firm’s crypto investments. The division now has 25 employees overall and is scaling. It represents one of the largest — if not the largest —&nbsp;commitments by a legacy asset manager to digital assets.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“Brevan is making an absolutely massive push into crypto,” one source said.</blockquote>



BH Digital Multi-Strategy Fund invests in both liquid cryptocurrencies and takes venture capital-style stakes in private blockchain companies. BH Digital is looking to hire additional portfolio managers in addition to the 10 it already has, with each team typically supported by analysts.&nbsp;



“(The firm’s) gone out and got the picks and shovels, but they need to be able to execute that type of strategy,” one source said.&nbsp;



The firm <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/hedge-fund-manager-brevan-howard-investing-in-digital-assets/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">started trading crypto</a> via its other funds last year.



Indications are that Brevan Howard’s marketing staffers have already begun to gauge the interest of the firm’s institutional limited-partners in the new fund.&nbsp;



“My understanding is they’ve just been making the internal calls to the large allocators that already have a Brevan product,” one source said.



Added another source: “With their network already, they&#8217;re going to do a great job of cross-selling. They’re going to have a massive raise in the second half of this year.”



The firm oversaw about $18 billion of assets under management in November 2021, the most recent figure available. Brevan Howard recently redeemed 15% of its $7 billion BH Alpha Strategies Fund from investors, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-01-11/brevan-howard-makes-hedge-fund-clients-commit-cash-for-longer" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bloomberg reported</a> — asking clients to lock up their cash for longer and mirroring a trend by its peers.



Co-founder Alan Howard has invested his personal wealth in cryptocurrencies for years, including backing crypto hedge fund firm One River Digital Asset Management.



Jason Cummins, Brevan Howard’s head of research and chief US economist, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-01-11/brevan-howard-makes-hedge-fund-clients-commit-cash-for-longer" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">joined One River’s advisory group</a> earlier this month.



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Brevan Howard Launches First Digital Assets Fund in ‘Massive’ Crypto Push

Jacquelyn Melinek

<div id="highlights-block_61d5946a81167" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>“This next wave of large-scale apps will be Web3 enabled because they represent better economic opportunities for creators,” Doug Petkanics, Livepeer CEO told Blockworks</li>
 <li>Livepeer has a large scaling update, Confluence, shipping in early 2022, which will move its internal protocol from layer-1 Ethereum to a layer-2 solution</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



An Ethereum-based video streaming network, Livepeer, has raised $20 million in a Series B-1 round, the company shared on Wednesday. 



Investors include Alan Howard, a billionaire hedge fund manager, and investment firm Tiger Global, among others. The capital will be used to continue pursuing opportunities to capture live-streaming infrastructure, eSports and live shopping, it said. 



The round follows its $20 million Series B from July that was led by Digital Currency Group. To date, Livepeer has raised a total of $48 million.&nbsp;



“This next wave of large-scale apps will be Web3 enabled because they represent better economic opportunities for creators,” Doug Petkanics, Livepeer CEO, told Blockworks. “They&#8217;re being built across categories like creator economy, decentralized social, metaverse, and more,” he said. 



These applications leverage monetization mechanics like NFTs, token gating, and shared ownership mechanics through communities and DAOs, and they&#8217;ll be built on open infrastructures such as Livepeer, which are crypto native, Petkanics said.&nbsp;



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“The next TikTok scaled application is likely to emerge from these primitives,” he commented. </blockquote>



The decentralized video streaming network was founded in 2017 and has seen exponential growth during the past year as it hit a record of <a href="https://explorer.livepeer.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">3.6 million minutes</a> streamed in a single week in October, up six times from the start of 2021, Petkanics said. In the most recent week ending Jan 1, 2022, the Livepeer network streamed 2.34 million minutes. 



Livepeer has a large scaling update, Confluence, shipping in early 2022, which will move its internal protocol from layer-1 Ethereum to a layer-2 solution to enable cost effective participation for its supply-side node operators and token holding delegators, Petkanics said.&nbsp;



“We&#8217;ve all become acutely aware of the weaknesses of centralized systems,” Petkanics noted. “Whether it&#8217;s a whistleblower or a system outage, these legacy intermediaries simply can&#8217;t match the reliability of decentralized networks. Add in the ability to scale at a reasonable price, and it&#8217;s clear that Web3 infrastructure is one of the biggest investment themes of 2022,” he added.



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