Since the end of last year, South Korea’s National Pension Service (NPS) has been revealed to hold shares in Coinbase, MicroStrategy and others, and is considered to be strongly optimistic about the encryption market. However, NPS has come forward to deny this statement.
South Korea National Pension NPS Investment Crypto Stocks
NPS disclosed its first purchase of 282,673 shares of the Coinbase exchange in the third quarter of last year, worth approximately $19.9 million at the time. This was the first time that NPS included digital asset-related companies in its U.S. stock investment portfolio.
NPS is one of South Korea's largest investment groups and the world's third-largest pension fund, with more than 997.4 trillion won (approximately US$800 billion) in assets under management.
In the second quarter of this year, NPS also invested 245,000 shares in MicroStrategy (MSTR), with an investment amount of approximately 46 billion won, accounting for 0.04% of its US stock investment portfolio.
However, according to Korean media Money Today, NPS emphasized that the above-mentioned investments were not for crypto assets.
(Korea National Pension Insurance expands indirect investment in Bitcoin, adding new shares in MicroStrategy)
NPS: Not bullish on virtual assets
Regarding being considered to invest indirectly in crypto assets, NPS stated that investments such as Coinbase and MicroStrategy are not aimed at virtual assets, and cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin are not its investment targets. It also emphasized that its investment behavior only tracks benchmarks such as the Morgan Stanley Capital International Index (MSCI). The constituent stocks in the index do not actively invest in virtual currency assets.
NPS will continue to abide by the principles of "profitability and stability" for fund operations, and certain restrictions will be required when the Fund Operations Committee discusses whether investments in virtual asset-related companies are involved.
Baek Jong-hun, a member of the Health and Welfare Committee of the Korean National Assembly, also called for more cautious investment policies in virtual assets to protect the long-term security and stability of the National Pension Fund.
(Micro-Strategy entered the MSCI ACWI Index, and the stock price has increased by 80% this year, far outperforming Bitcoin)
MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin holdings are about to surpass GBTC
According to Bitcointreasuries, as of September 2024, MicroStrategy holds 252,220 Bitcoins, accounting for 1.2% of the global Bitcoin supply, and is likely to surpass Grayscale’s 220,949 BTC the next time it holds Bitcoin, becoming the largest Bitcoin The top five entities of holders are after BlackRock, Binance, Satoshi Nakamoto and Coinbase.
(BlackRock IBIT Bitcoin assets officially surpass Grayscale GBTC)
This article Denies indirect investment in crypto assets, South Korea’s National Pension: Just tracks the MSCI index first appeared on Chain News ABMedia.
