Bitcoin has surged to $66,000 following an announcement from the mayor of Jersey City on Thursday.
The city, the second largest in New Jersey, is considering allocating a portion of its pension fund to Bitcoin ETFs.
“The question of whether cryptocurrencies/Bitcoin have staying power has largely been answered,” Mayor Steven Fulop stated in a Twitter post. “Cryptocurrencies/Bitcoin have prevailed.”
Fulop revealed that Jersey City’s Employee Retirement System, a pension plan for city employees, is currently updating its paperwork with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to allocate one percent of its funds to Bitcoin ETFs.
He further explained his intention to increase this allocation to 2%, mirroring an investment made by Wisconsin’s state pension fund earlier this spring. Fulop expects this move to be finalized by the end of the summer.
“I am confident that this will eventually become more widespread,” the mayor commented on other local and state pension funds adding cryptocurrencies to their investment portfolios. “I believe blockchain is one of the most significant technological advancements since the internet.”
This announcement comes as Fulop seeks to secure support for his bid to become the next governor of New Jersey. Although the election isn’t until November 2025, the Democratic primary is already attracting several prominent candidates.
In recent months, signaling support for cryptocurrencies has quickly become a strategy for garnering significant campaign contributions from crypto-friendly companies and executives. Fairshake, an industry super PAC, has amassed around $203 million in this election cycle, making it the largest independent political spender in 2024.
This level of funding seems to have shifted the previous political calculations. In recent months, former President Donald Trump has moved from an ambiguous stance on cryptocurrencies to becoming a staunch supporter of the industry. On Saturday, Trump is set to speak at the Bitcoin Conference in Nashville.
The Democrats appear to be taking note. Vice President Kamala Harris’s team reached out to Mark Cuban with numerous questions about cryptocurrencies within 48 hours of her presidential campaign launch.
