Bitcoin
Wisconsin Pension Fund Now Includes Bitcoin
The Wisconsin pension fund added bitcoin to its balance sheets, purchasing more than $160 million worth of shares from two newly approved funds earlier this year.
US Securities and Exchange filings from the Wisconsin State Investment Board show that between Jan. 1 and March 31, it purchased just over $99 million worth of shares in a bitcoin exchange-traded fund, or ETF, from investment giant Blackrock. The Investment Board, known as SWIB, also purchased about $64 million worth of another bitcoin ETF from Grayscale.
A SWIB spokesperson told WPR it does not comment on specific assets or acquisitions.
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Marquette University associate professor emeritus of finance David Krause said there is a distinction between buying bitcoin itself and buying shares of a bitcoin ETF. People can buy bitcoins directly and store them in a digital wallet, but Krause said to think of bitcoin ETFs more like a mutual fund. He said the ETF’s shares are tied to the price of bitcoin, but investors do not actually own the cryptocurrency.
Bitcoin ETFs, like those purchased by SWIB, were approved by the SEC on January 10.
“They are traded on exchanges,” Krause said. “So, they have liquidity just like shares. They are also regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission. This gives investors some confidence that they are not dealing with directly purchasing an asset.”
While $160 million is a lot of money, Krause said it’s a small fraction of Wisconsin’s overall pension fund. At the end of December, SWIB held more than US$155 billion in assetswith the vast majority representing Wisconsin Retirement System assets.
“Like any good portfolio manager, you want to diversify,” Krause said. “And now that bitcoin has been around for over a decade, we are aware that it not only offers quite strong returns – sometimes over periods of time quite phenomenal returns – but it also has diversification capabilities. It doesn’t move directly, in conjunction with stocks and bonds.”
However, bitcoin is notoriously volatile. In 2021, the price of one bitcoin peaked at nearly $66,000 before falling to around $16,000 in 2022. This year, it reached a new high of around $71,000.
Krause said it is a “big deal” for SWIB to get involved with bitcoin funds because it is considered one of the most highly regarded pension funds in the country.
“I can guarantee that most institutional money managers have realized this,” Krause said. “Pension Magazine highlighted this just a few days ago that Wisconsin did it. Therefore, I am quite confident that almost everyone who runs large pension funds or institutional funds is aware that SWIB has taken this action.”
Mark Fedenia, associate professor of finance at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business, said the move provides “institutional validation for investments in Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies.”
“SWIB’s investment could increase confidence among other pension funds regarding the legitimacy and potential of Bitcoin ETFs,” said Fedenia. “Seeing a well-regarded institution like SWIB take the plunge could alleviate concerns about volatility, regulatory risks and the overall investment thesis for Bitcoin.”
Bitcoin, which was created in 2009, is “mined” using high-powered computers to verify online transactions using cryptocurrency. Bitcoin mines consume substantial amounts of electricity. In addition to its volatility, critics have pointed to its energy consumption, wasteful electronics and its use by criminal hackers as a form of payment following ransomware attacks.
In Wisconsin, some local communities have turned to bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as a way to reinvigorate their local economies. In 2022, the owners of a rural hydroelectric plant in Jackson County partnered with New York-based Digital Power Optimization to start a cryptocurrency mine at Lake Arbutus.
Editor’s note: WPR employees are participants in the Wisconsin Retirement System.
Wisconsin Public Radio, © Copyright 2024, University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents and Wisconsin Educational Communications Council.
Bitcoin
‘This is huge’ — Billionaire Mark Cuban issues ‘incredible’ Bitcoin and crypto prediction amid price slump
Bitcoin
Bitcoin
came back with a vengeance this year when former President Donald Trump Cryptocurrency boosts US presidential election in November with ‘revolutionary’ plan.
The price of bitcoin has surged to more than its all-time high in recent months, surpassing $70,000 per bitcoin and triggering a wave of mega-optimistic predictions about the price of bitcointhough it fell again this week, falling below $65,000 after the Federal Reserve kept interest rates steady.
Now, as Elon Musk suddenly breaks his silence on bitcoin and cryptocurrenciesBillionaire investor Mark Cuban called a California plan to digitize 42 million car titles using blockchain an “incredible step forward” and “huge” for cryptocurrencies.
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Mark Cuban, famous Shark Tank investor and billionaire owner of the NBA team Dallas Mavericks, has… [+] called a cryptocurrency update “amazing” amid bitcoin’s price slump.
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The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) has digitized 42 million car titles using blockchain, it was reported by Reuters, through technology company Oxhead Alpha on the Avalanche blockchain and designed to detect fraud and facilitate the securities transfer process.
“This is an incredible development for crypto,” Cuban, best known as an investor on TV’s Shark Tank and owner of the Dallas Mavericks NBA team, posted on X, joking that U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler could sue the state as part of his hostility toward cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology.
“The reason this is huge for crypto is because people who hold the tokens will have an app with an Avalanche wallet,” Cuban said. “Tens of millions of Californians having and using a crypto wallet in the next five years, or however long it takes, normalizes the use of wallets and crypto.”
John Wu, president of Avalanche developer Ava Labs, told Reuters that California’s DMV is “creating a wallet that you can download on your phone.”
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Bitcoin’s price has rallied this year, triggering a wave of bullish bitcoin price predictions from… [+] people like billionaire Mark Cuban.
Forbes Digital Assets
Last month, Cuban predicted that if the US dollar falls as the global reserve currency, bitcoin could become “a global ‘safe haven’” and a “global currency.” potentially sending the price of bitcoin to a much higher level.
According to Cuban, bitcoin could become what its most ardent supporters “envision” — a means “of protecting our economies… This is already happening in countries facing hyperinflation.”
The price of bitcoin has skyrocketed over the past year, largely due to the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock, leading a bitcoin attack on Wall Street.
Analysts are starting to pay more attention than usual to Bitcoin-proxy’s underlying enterprise software business MicroStrategy Inc.
How to better invest cash generated from operations is what originally prompted co-founder and CEO Michael Saylor to turn to Bitcoin four years ago. Since then, the Tysons Corner, Va.-based company has adopted a two-pronged strategy of investing in the cryptocurrency instead of traditional assets like short-term Treasuries and ramping up its software operations.
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Bitcoin has retreated from a six-week high as investors shift their focus to speculation the U.S. may sell seized tokens just days after Donald Trump vowed to create a government stockpile of the cryptocurrency if he is elected president again.
The US transferred $2 billion worth of Bitcoin to a new digital wallet address on Monday, blockchain research firm Arkham said in a publish on social media platform X. Market analysis firms have speculated that the tokens are from the Silk Road marketplace, where customers used virtual currencies to buy illegal drugs and hacking tools before it was shut down.
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