Avi Felman is a digital asset markets professional best known for his trading and portfolio management work at BlockTower Capital, a crypto focused investment firm. His career has centered on market structure, execution, and risk management across spot and derivatives venues, areas that became increasingly important as liquidity deepened and institutional participation expanded in crypto markets.
Overview
Felman has been associated with institutional trading desks that operate across multiple market environments, including centralized exchanges, OTC liquidity, and derivatives markets. In roles tied to BlockTower Capital, he has been described as a senior member of the investment team, with responsibilities spanning trade implementation, portfolio construction inputs, and day to day oversight of market risk.
History and Background
BlockTower Capital emerged in the late 2010s as part of a cohort of hedge funds and asset managers building dedicated crypto strategies. Within that context, Felman became a recognizable figure on the trading side of the firm, where execution quality, venue selection, and operational resilience can materially influence performance. Trading for a multi strategy crypto fund often requires navigating fragmented liquidity, variable exchange reliability, and evolving derivatives products, alongside rapid shifts in volatility.
In 2022, GoldenTree Asset Management publicly announced that Felman would join the firm to lead digital assets trading efforts. The move reflected a broader trend of established credit and alternatives managers exploring crypto exposure, either through specialist hires or partnerships, as the asset class matured and investor demand for institutional grade access continued to develop.
Role at BlockTower Capital
At BlockTower Capital, Felman has been characterized as a senior trading and investment professional, including coverage that described him as a co portfolio manager and head of trading. In a crypto hedge fund setting, these responsibilities typically include:
- Execution and liquidity management, sourcing liquidity across exchanges and OTC counterparties while minimizing slippage and operational risk.
- Derivatives and basis exposure oversight, managing futures, perpetual swaps, and options positioning where funding rates and collateral practices can impact returns.
- Risk controls, coordinating margin usage, hedging, and position sizing in markets that can gap significantly during macro events or exchange disruptions.
- Operational coordination, aligning trading activity with custody workflows, settlement timelines, and counterparty limits.
While public detail on specific strategies is limited, the role aligns with the needs of funds that may trade both directional and relative value exposures, including liquid majors such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, as well as select altcoin markets where liquidity and market impact can be more challenging.
Market Focus and Industry Relevance
Felman’s profile reflects a segment of the crypto industry focused less on product promotion and more on the mechanics of how capital is deployed, hedged, and risk managed. Over time, institutional trading roles have expanded beyond simple exchange execution to include governance over operational risk, collateral quality, and venue reliability. These concerns became more pronounced after multiple industry stress events, including sharp deleveraging cycles and counterparty failures that reshaped how funds assess custody and exchange exposure.
His move into a traditional asset manager environment also illustrates how crypto expertise has been imported into established financial firms, particularly as investors sought differentiated returns, diversification, and exposure to crypto market structure opportunities.
Funding and Team Context
Felman’s work has generally been framed within team based investment organizations rather than founder led product companies. In this model, performance and risk outcomes depend on collaboration between portfolio managers, researchers, operations, and compliance, especially where trading spans multiple jurisdictions and counterparties.
Risks and Considerations
Trading and portfolio management in crypto carries risks that differ from traditional markets in both magnitude and form. Key considerations relevant to roles like Felman’s include:
- Market volatility and liquidity gaps, where fast price moves can exceed margin buffers and stress execution.
- Counterparty and venue risk, including exchange outages, withdrawal delays, and changes in trading rules.
- Custody and key management, where operational failures or security incidents can lead to loss even without market exposure.
- Regulatory change, as evolving rules for custody, disclosures, and derivatives access can reshape fund operations.
BlockTower Capital itself has been the subject of periodic media reporting tied to the broader operational and security risks faced by crypto market participants. As with many firms in the sector, public information can be incomplete, so observers typically distinguish between confirmed disclosures and third party reporting.
