British billionaire and Brevan Howard founder Alan Howard is looking to launch a $1 billion venture in the digital asset hedge fund space, according to the Financial Times.

The firm behind the Howard-backed venture is Elwood Asset Management. Elwood’s CEO, Bin Ren, told the Financial Times that the aim is to focus on institutional investors with a range of vetted crypto funds to avoid the risks of unregulated exchanges.

Elwood is currently screening more than 50 crypto hedge funds to assess whether they can satisfy its due diligence approach.

Ren states that Elwood could eventually have more than $1 billion in assets under management (AUM).

Last week, New York firm Grayscale revealed that it has $2.5 billion AUM, comprised mainly of Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Litecoin, and a few others.

The potential revenue for crypto funds is far greater than traditional funds as firms can charge a management fee of 1.72% in addition to a performance fee of 23.5% – exceeding the traditional rate of 1.41% and 16.6%.

“I see this as a very big growth opportunity,” Ren told the Financial Times.

Retail interest in crypto has been lagging over the past year, remaining at the same level it was at during the bear market in 2018.

This can only suggest that this year’s rally from $3,150 to $14,000 was spurred by an influx of institutional investment ahead of the launch of Bakkt’s futures product and a potential ETF approval.

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Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author should not be considered as financial advice. We do not give advice on financial products.