- The Government Pension Investment Fund of Japan (GPIF) is studying the potential inclusion of illiquidity assets like Bitcoin (BTC) in its pension fund portfolio.
- GPIF is the world’s largest pension fund by assets under management (AUM).
GPIF Studies Including Bitcoin in Its Portfolio
We may be witnessing the dawn of Bitcoin’s golden age as more traditional financial powerhouses are now recognizing its potential. Last Tuesday, the Government Pension Investment Fund of Japan revealed that it is evaluating the inclusion of Bitcoin in its investment portfolio alongside other illiquidity assets.
Bitcoin going into the radar of the GPIF is big news in the cryptocurrency industry as the government agency is considered the world’s top pension fund in terms of assets under management. Based on the financial institution’s 2023 annual report, the fund yielded 14.3 trillion yen ($94 billion) in returns from foreign equities and 12.88 trillion yen ($85 billion) from domestic equities.
The development is seen by the wider crypto industry as a possible bridge for further adoption of similar assets in the digital realm like altcoins into investment or pension funds. The move also reaffirms Japan’s positive stance toward BTC and digital assets.
GPIF utilizes its funds for bonds, stocks, real estate, infrastructure, and private equities in and out of Japan. It is currently looking to expand its illiquidity assets portfolio to include gold, forests, farmlands, and Bitcoin. The Japanese pension fund’s interest in BTC came hot on the heels of a proposed law in the country that would allow investment funds to include digital assets such as cryptocurrencies in their offerings.
So far, most traditional investment firms have steered clear of cryptocurrencies because of their inherently volatile nature. Nonetheless, this didn’t thwart some forward-thinking entities from exploring the digital currency frontier. One of them happened to be South Korea’s National Pension Service, which now has crypto exposure thanks to its acquisition of Coinbase shares last year.
Bitcoin Now
Bitcoin just registered a one-week low of $60,807.79 before settling at $61,900 as of this writing at 6:30 AM UTC on Wednesday. The recent dip in BTC’s valuation has also dragged down its market cap to $1.22 trillion, which dropped the premier cryptocurrency from last week’s eighth to today’s tenth among the top 10 assets in the world by market cap.
The all-time high of the digital asset remains at $73,750.07, which it achieved last March 14.