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Slowly but surely, everyone is jumping on the Bitcoin train. Amidst the incoming herd of institutional investors and retirement funds, credit unions are also coming in. The Korea Teachers’ Credit Union, which manages more than $40 billion, is now investing in Bitcoin, according to local reports, citing industry sources. South Korea’s second-largest institutional investor is currently eyeing its first investment in a spot-based Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF). The union will be the first Korean pension fund to invest in a crypto-linked ETF. The size of the investment and other details are yet to be determined though it is expected to begin in the first half of next year.
“As there are some well-made cryptocurrency-linked ETF products by asset managers such as Korea’s Mirae Asset Global Investments, we plan to invest in the ETF products after consultation with domestic asset managers.”
Mirae Asset Global Investment listed BetaPro Inverse Bitcoin ETF, which profits when bitcoin’s value declines, on Canada’s Toronto Stock Exchange on Oct. 15. The asset manager’s subsidiary, Global X, has also filed for another Bitcoin ETF, Global X Bitcoin Trust, with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in July, awaiting to launch it later this year. The pension fund invests about 40% of its assets under management (AUM) in alternative assets, 10% in domestic and 9% in overseas stocks; the latter will be used to invest in Bitcoin-related ETF products.
“Korea’s pension funds haven’t been active in cryptocurrency investment, however, they are changing as cryptocurrency is rising as a mainstream asset.”
This month, the Houston Firefighters’ Relief & Retirement Fund also announced that it had bought $25 million worth of Bitcoin and Ethereum. “Pension funds with a strong public character had no choice but to react slowly to the cryptocurrency craze,” an official from a pension fund told another publication. [coin_ticker symbol="BTC"]