The Pension Fund for Scientists and Educators of South Korea decided to invest part of the capital in ETFs on Bitcoin futures. This is the first time a Korean pension fund invests in the cryptocurrency industry.
The Korean Faculty and Staff Mutual Aid Foundation plans to start investing in the first half of 2022: in a local cryptocurrency ETF, if launched, or in a similar instrument on an overseas platform. The investment will be determined by the Association’s Investment Review Committee. The fund made the decision based on its own research, which showed that cryptocurrencies are gradually becoming a major investment asset in the world.
An additional impetus for the decision was the recent launch of the ETF on bitcoin futures in the United States. This factor gave legitimacy to the asset and turned it into a transparent product. Earlier attempts by fund managers in South Korea to make such investments have been thwarted by negative perceptions of cryptocurrencies by the country’s financial regulators. This step of the Association can create a network effect for similar funds as well as for asset managers.
“All this time, pension funds with a pronounced public character had no choice but to observe the general craze for cryptocurrencies.”
It is noteworthy that the decision of the Association was adopted against the background of toughening of legislation on the regulation of cryptocurrencies in South Korea. The Faculty and Staff Mutual Aid Association administers funds to which faculty and staff regularly pay during their tenure.
If for South Korea this is the first case of a social fund investing in cryptocurrencies, then in the United States last month two pension funds from Virginia submitted applications to the regulator for approval of investments in a cryptocurrency fund. Analyst firm Pureprofile reported last month that 45 of the 50 pension funds and insurance companies in the UK and the US with a combined capital of more than $ 80 billion are planning to invest in cryptocurrencies in the next five years.
