The municipal pension plan of Jersey City, New Jersey, is about to invest in Bitcoin through an exchange-traded fund (ETF), becoming the latest pension fund to enter the cryptocurrency space.
Jersey City, New Jersey Mayor Steven Fulop said on social media on Thursday (25th) that the Jersey City Pension Fund is updating documents with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to allocate a certain proportion of the fund to Bitcoin ETF. He said the procedure would be completed by the end of the summer and "I'm sure this will eventually become more common".
“This is not a topic I normally post about, but I’m going to share it anyway – the question of whether crypto/Bitcoin is here to stay is basically over, crypto/Bitcoin won,” Fulop wrote. I have long been a big fan of cryptocurrencies (albeit with their ups and downs), but broadly speaking, outside of cryptocurrencies, I am convinced that blockchain is one of the most important new technological innovations since the Internet.”
Fulop, a Democrat who has served as Jersey City's mayor since 2013, has announced his candidacy for New Jersey's 2025 gubernatorial election. While Fulop did not specify how much of the city’s retirement fund’s assets under management would be allocated to the Bitcoin ETF, he mentioned in the article that it would be “similar” to the Wisconsin Retirement Fund’s decision on a Bitcoin spot ETF earlier this year. % distribute.
Not my normal subject matter in a post but I’ll share anyway – the question on whether Crypto/Bitcoin is here to stay is largely over + crypto/Bitcoin won. The#JerseyCitypension fund is in process of updating paperwork to the SEC to allocate % of the fund to Bitcoin ETFs… https://t.co/5iNEqRqHGM
— Steven Fulop (@StevenFulop) July 25, 2024
Interest in Bitcoin from public pension funds is slowly but steadily growing. The Wisconsin Public Pension Plan (the Wisconsin Investment Commission with approximately $156 billion in assets under management) is by far the largest pension plan involved in the cryptocurrency field. According to documents disclosed in May this year, the fund holds approximately $1.63 Billion dollar Bitcoin spot ETF.
Some small retirement funds have been investing in cryptocurrencies for several years, such as the Houston Firefighters Relief and Retirement Fund (HFRRF), which has about $5 billion in assets under management. A retirement fund in Fairfax County, Virginia, also invests in cryptocurrencies through VanEck’s “New Finance Income Fund.” VanEck’s fund became a creditor of cryptocurrency company Genesis when it filed for bankruptcy last year.
Outside the United States, the world’s largest public pension fund, the Japanese Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF), announced in March this year that it was soliciting information on illiquid assets, including Bitcoin, which it has not yet invested in.
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