Bitcoin News and Finance
US Public Pension Fund for Firefighters Adds Bitcoin and Ether Worth $25 Million to Portfolio Skip to main content

US Public Pension Fund for Firefighters Adds Bitcoin and Ether Worth $25 Million to Portfolio

US Public Pension Fund for Firefighters Adds Bitcoin and Ether Worth $25 Million to Portfolio

The $5.5 billion pension fund for the U.S. city of Houston’s firefighters has announced an investment in bitcoin and ether. “This investment marks the first announced investment in digital assets by a public pension plan in the U.S.”

‘A Watershed Moment for Bitcoin and Its Place in Public Pensions’

The Houston Firefighters’ Relief and Retirement Fund (HFRRF), the pension fund for the city of Houston’s firefighters, announced Thursday that it had purchased bitcoin and ether for the defined benefit plan’s portfolio. The announcement describes:

This investment marks the first announced investment in digital assets by a public pension plan in the U.S.

According to Bloomberg, the Houston Firefighters’ Relief and Retirement Fund has $5.5 billion in assets and it invested $25 million in bitcoin and ether. The investment was facilitated by the New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG), a bitcoin investment arm of Stone Ridge Asset Management.

The HFRRF pension fund handles retirement benefits for more than 6,600 active and retired firefighters and survivors of firefighters. Active firefighters have contributed 9% of their salary to the fund since 2004, with the city of Houston contributing at least twice that amount.

“We are excited to take this first step forward into the world of digital assets,” commented Ajit Singh, HFRRF’s chief investment officer. He elaborated:

We have been studying digital assets’ transformative potential for some time … It became an asset class we could not ignore anymore.

He continued: “This investment expresses our belief in the disruptive potential of distributed ledger technology for the development and democratization of value accumulation through disintermediation.”

Singh was also quoted by Bloomberg as saying: “I see this as another tool to manage my risk … It has a positive expected return and it manages my risk. It has a low correlation to every other asset class.”

The HFRRF chief investment officer preferred to invest in coins directly, rather than taking on risk associated with futures-related investments. He explained: “We didn’t want to get the synthetic exposure. We decided to go directly to the token. As more and more institutional adoptions happen, there will be more and more dynamics that develop for supply and demand. And having physical assets — actual tokens — gives us in the future the possibility of income generation potential.”

Nate Conrad, global head of asset management at NYDIG, opined:

This investment represents a watershed moment for bitcoin and its place in public pensions. Fiduciaries are increasingly aware of how even a small allocation to digital assets can make a big impact over time.

Do you think more public pension funds will buy bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies? Let us know in the comments section below.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Custodial Lightning Network Service Attack Discovered by LN ‘Newbie’ — Hacker Strikes 6 LN Custodians

On September 18, a Redditor posted to the r/bitcoin forum and explained how he discovered a way to “attack [the] lightning Network’s custodial services.” The Reddit account dubbed “Reckless Satoshi” wanted to figure out if a “discrepancy between real routing fees and service’s transaction fee can be exploited for a profit.” The researcher disclosed that he wanted to see how large the damage could be and said “it is bad.” 6 Lightning Network Custodial Services Attacked, Researcher Discloses Findings to Offenders Prior to Public Disclosure A Redditor called Reckless Satoshi published a disclosure post on r/bitcoin this past Saturday and disclosed how he had found a vulnerability with routing fees and some of the Lightning Network’s custodial services. The research attack was done in good faith and after it was complete he disclosed the bugs to the offending services before publishing his findings. Reckless Satoshi used the Lightning Network (LN) attack on six different services incl
Post a Comment
Read more

Axie Infinity Down 40% Since Last Week’s Price High, Protocol Revenue Outshines Competitors

Last week, the game token leveraged within the Axie Infinity gaming universe skyrocketed to all-time highs, while other crypto markets remained extremely lackluster. During the last seven days, Axie Infinity’s platform token has dropped significantly in value shedding more than 12%. Meanwhile, the game platform’s smooth love potion token has slid over 8% over the last 24 hours. Axie Infinity Down More Than 40% Since All-Time High Not too long ago, the axie infinity (AXS) token was a topical conversation because it reached an all-time high on July 15. At the time, AXS managed to capture $28.93 per unit and since then it has shed 12.8% during the last seven days. The axie infinity (AXS) token is used within the blockchain-based game that involves battles between token-based creatures called “Axies.” AXS is used for the game’s governance system as well as other actions within the game. At the time of writing axie infinity (AXS) is exchanging hands for $16.70 per coin. AXS/USD on Ju
Post a Comment
Read more

Play-to-Earn Game From Polker (PKR) Exchange Listing – Endorsed by Akon

The Play-to-Earn NFT based Polker.Game ‘s native token $PKR has been officially listed on the popular centralized exchange BitMart. Polker.game has been in the spotlight recently as Akon, the American R&B superstar and record producer gave his official endorsement of polker stating that the “game is revolutionary” and that Polker is “hands down.. the best play to earn, NFT game in the space.”. With the BitMart listing and celebrity endorsement from Akon, Polker is perfectly positioned to become a major player in the Play-to-Earn league. Watch Akon’s Video Here What is Play-to-Earn? Although not a new concept, play-to-earn has become a trending term due to the popularity of the NFT game AXIE infinity. In the past, previous play-to-earn games have also achieved success – however, thanks to the huge amount of development in the blockchain space in recent years the gaming experience is now massively improved. Play-to-Earn games are essentially free to play and open to anyone and
Post a Comment
Read more

China to Crack Down on Copyright Infringement Through NFTs

Authorities in China are going after creators of digital collectibles based on other people’s works of art, the use of which was not authorized. The government offensive is part of a campaign to combat online copyright infringement and piracy with the participation of several departments. Regulators in China Move to Strengthen Copyright Supervision of Online Platforms The National Copyright Administration of China (NCAC) has recently launched a campaign against copyright infringement and piracy on the internet, together with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security, and the State Internet Information Office of the People’s Republic. A major objective of the initiative is to improve copyright supervision of online businesses by investigating cases involving the sale and distribution of infringing products on short video, live broadcast and e-commerce platforms, and promptly dealing with infringing content, the agency announced in a press r
Post a Comment
Read more
Blogarama - Blog Directory