The State Of Michigan Has Bought Bitcoin In Its Pension Fund

Yet another regional government has disclosed an allocation to the newly launched Bitcoin ETFs, forging another step in Bitcoin’s growing adoption among not only institutions but also governments.

In a Form-13F filed on Friday, the State of Michigan Retirement System revealed that it had $6.6 million allocated to Bitcoin ETF products as of June 30.

Michigan Buys Bitcoin

According to the filing, the pension fund made its first Bitcoin investment through the Ark 21Shares Bitcoin ETF – the fourth largest U.S. Bitcoin ETF behind BlackRock, Grayscale, and Fidelity.

The $6 million investment is just a drop in the ocean compared to the pension’s reported $143.9 billion in assets as of December 2023, making for a 0.004% slice of the total pie. For every citizen of Michigan, it represents just $0.71 worth of BTC.

“As someone from Michigan… boo yah on being ahead of the curve,” tweeted Luke Broyles, Head of Blockware podcast, on Friday. “They got off zero.”

Michigan is now the second U.S. state to confirm it’s “off zero” after Wisconsin. In May, the State of Wisconsin Investment Board (SWIB) revealed that it had deployed $154 million across BlackRock and Grayscale’s Bitcoin ETFs, as of March 31 – a 0.4% slice of its $37.8 billion securities portfolio.

Pensions Buying BTC

The city of Jersey is also getting in on Bitcoin, with Mayor Steven Fulop announcing Thursday that he is filing paperwork with regulators to permit investment in the Bitcoin ETFs.

“The question on whether Crypto/Bitcoin is here to stay is largely over + crypto/Bitcoin won,” Fullop tweeted on Friday. The city’s allocation will be completed by the end of the summer, with intentions to allocate roughly 2% of the fund’s assets into BTC.

Interest in Bitcoin is building in other states already, as multiple have now passed legislation to guarantee citizens’ rights to custody Bitcoin. Ohio State Rep. Steve Demetriou proposed such legislation in April – which would also require state pensions to evaluate Bitcoin ETF for potential investment.

Though most large investors’ Bitcoin allocations still seem small, Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan has claimed that BTC allocations typically rise as time passes, after investors first put their toe in the water.