It’s as official as it gets when a culture of secrecy prevails: staff at hedge fund Brevan Howard have told reporters (unofficially) that their cryptocurrency boss Gautam Sharma has quit. The departure comes during a two-year period that has seen the firm fighting to modernize with a raft of job cuts that included former star traders.
Despite the trials and tribulations, the macro hedge fund has relentlessly pursued its goal of embracing cryptocurrency. With digital assets moving into the mainstream, the message to modernize has not been lost on Brevan Howard. As a macro, it tends to focus on bigger-picture investment strategies, and it’s fair to say that digital assets increasingly loom large on said bigger picture.
So Why Did Sharma Quit?
Surprising then to see the departure of Sharma, who took a leave of absence earlier this year and is now said by Brevan Howard insiders not to be returning. What’s more, the sources – who declined to be named – are also claiming he will not be replaced.
Quite why Sharma is leaving and why his job role will no longer exist remains something of a mystery, for his tenure as head of digital assets does not appear to have been unsuccessful.
His departure comes at a time when Brevan Howard is moving in aggressively on cryptocurrencies, doubling its holding in asset manager BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust to $2.6 billion in June.
This places Brevan among the biggest institutional players on the crypto scene, sharing the space with the likes of Goldman Sachs. It’s a fair chunk (about 8 per cent) of the total $34 billion in assets that Brevan Howard is estimated to manage as at April 2025.
Brevan Howard’s Job Casualities
Brevan Howard’s efforts to modernize have already seen it downsize its workforce. Last year the firm cut about a tenth of its employees, shedding a hundred jobs. These were mainly back office workers, but those laying offs in 2024 also saw 20 portfolio managers sacked.
“In the past two years, Brevan Howard has rolled out multiple rounds of job cuts, firing star traders as it faced lagging returns in its flagship fund,” Financial News reported in February. “Meanwhile, a bid to expand beyond its traditional focuses has seen […] make a bold bet on the Wild West world of crypto.”
Earlier this year, DisruptionBanking reported that Brevan Howard had been struggling overall, but that its crypto arm, Brevan Howard Digital, offered something of a light in dark times.
Sharma’s departure brings to an end his three years at the helm of Brevan Howard Digital, which he joined as CEO in 2022, a year after joining Brevan Howard as head of principal investments.
Did he jump or was he pushed? So far, no one is telling.
#CapitalMarkets #DigitalAssets #HedgeFunds
Author: Damien Black
The editorial team at #DisruptionBanking has taken all precautions to ensure that no persons or organizations have been adversely affected or offered any sort of financial advice in this article. This article is most definitely not financial advice.
See Also:
Will Brevan Howard’s Crypto Arm Have Another Successful Year in 2025? | Disruption Banking
How is Brevan Howard still making big returns? | Disruption Banking
How Standard Chartered Became a Leader in Digital Assets | Disruption Banking
