Winton Group, the London hedge fund set up by billionaire quant investor David Harding, is on the hunt for specialist crypto expertise, in a hint it will join other heavyweight investors looking to gain a foothold in the fast-growing digital assets market.

The firm, which was founded by Harding in 2007, posted a job advert on LinkedIn in August for a crypto quant researcher to “support the development of our crypto systematic trading strategies”.

The...