Texas Firefighters Pension Fund Allocates $25 Million to Bitcoin and Ether
The fund is responsible for the benefits of more than 6,600 active and retired firefighters and surviving family members.
The Houston Fire Department Pension Fund has allocated part of its $4 billion portfolio to cryptocurrencies.
According to an October 21 Bloomberg report, the Houston Firefighters Relief and Retirement Fund used the New York Digital Investment Group, or NYDIG, to execute the $25 million purchase of Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH). Texas Comptroller’s Office public records show that the pension fund had more than $4.1 billion in total net assets as of June 2020, meaning the group allocated about 0.6% of its portfolio to assets digital.
“We have been considering this an asset class for some time to be added to our investment portfolio,” said the fund’s chief investment officer, Ajit Singh. “It has become an asset class that we can no longer ignore.”
He added:
“As more and more institutional adoptions occur, there will be more and more dynamics that will develop for supply and demand. And having physical assets, real tokens, gives us the potential to generate income in the future. "The fund is responsible for the benefits of more than 6,600 active and retired firefighters and surviving family members. According to the group, more than half of the fund is invested in common and private stocks, but it also includes domestic stocks, international stocks, bonds, cash and real estate.
Related: Pension funds and cryptocurrencies: like oil and water, or maybe not?
In June, pension plan provider ForUsAll gave its clients the option to invest up to 5% of their portfolio assets in cryptocurrencies, claiming that US citizens could be “at a disadvantage” if they didn’t. retirement plans. . Earlier this year, the gray scale also reported that it saw both pension and endowment funds actively investing in their funds with exposure to cryptocurrencies.