Bitcoin
Bitcoin ETF (BTC) Purchases for Pension Funds Just Getting Started
The first-quarter addition of two bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to the Wisconsin pension plan’s portfolio was likely just the beginning for that U.S. state’s investments in crypto, said David Krause, a finance professor at Marquette University, based in Milwaukee.
SWIB purchased shares of BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) and Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) valued at $164 million on March 31, a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission revealed in May.
The news shocked the industry as large institutions, specifically pensions, typically don’t invest in young ETFs like spot bitcoin ETFs, but the state investment board has been ahead of the game before, Krause said in an interview to the PBS Wisconsin.
“The Wisconsin Investment Board has always been innovative,” he said. “This is a fully funded pension fund, so in some ways they have the luxury of being able to invest for the long term. They don’t have to worry about liquidity as much as, say, the Illinois state pension fund, which is only funded at 50% of its level,” he added.
At the end of 2023, SWIB managed approximately $156 billion in assets, according to its websitemeaning his bitcoin ETF holdings represented a paltry ~0.1% of his portfolio.
Krause, however, said the investment was just a “toe in the water” and he hopes SWIB will increase that amount and other pensions will eventually follow suit.
“I think it’s just an entry point. I think they’re testing to see the public’s reaction to whether or not there’s resistance to owning this and they’re using this as a test because it’s really not going to substantially impact the portfolio until you get to maybe a 1% or 2% positioning. ”, he stated.
Nearly 500 institutional investors revealed allocations to spot bitcoin ETFs in the first three months of the year. The largest owner as of March 31 was a hedge fund Millennium Managementwhich revealed $2 billion in holdings in various funds, or about 3% of its total assets under management.