Wisconsin Pension Plan Likely to Invest Much More in Bitcoin ETF, Marquette Professor Says

The
first
quarter
addition
of
two
spot
bitcoin
exchange-traded
funds
(ETFs)
to
the
portfolio
of
Wisconsin’s
pension
plan
was
likely
just
the
beginning
for
that
U.S.
state’s
investments
into
crypto,
said
David
Krause,
a
professor
of
finance
at
Milwaukee-based
Marquette
University.

The
SWIB
purchased
shares
of
BlackRock’s
iShares
Bitcoin
Trust
(IBIT)
and
Grayscale’s
Bitcoin
Trust
(GBTC)
valued
at
$164
million
as
of
March
31,
a
filing
with
the
U.S.
Securities
and
Exchange
Commission
revealed
in
May.

The
news
shocked
the
industry
as
big
institutions,
specifically
pensions,
don’t
normally
invest
in
young
ETFs
like
the
spot
bitcoin
ETFs,
but
the
state’s
investment
board
has
been
ahead
of
the
game
before,
said
Krause
in
an
interview
with

PBS
Wisconsin.

“Wisconsin’s
investment
board
has
always
been
innovative,”
he
said.
“This
is
a
fully
funded
pension
fund
so
in
a
way,
they
have
the
luxury
of
being
able
to
invest
for
the
long
term.
They
don’t
need
to
worry
as
much
about
liquidity
as,
say,
the
pension
fund
for
the
state
of
Illinois,
which
is
only
funded
at
50%
of
its
level,”
he
added.

As
of
the
end
of
2023,
the
SWIB
managed
roughly
$156
billion
in
assets,
according
to
its

website,
meaning
its
holdings
in
the
bitcoin
ETFs
were
a
negligible
roughly
0.1%
of
its
portfolio.

Krause,
however,
said
the
investment
was
just
a
“toe
in
the
water”
and
he
expects
the
SWIB
to
add
to
that
amount
and
for
other
pensions
to
eventually
follow
suit.

“I
think
it’s
just
an
entry
point.
I
think
they’re
testing
to
see
the
reaction
of
the
public
to
whether
or
not
there’s
resistance
to
owning
this
and
they’re
using
it
as
a
trial
run,
because
it
really
is
not
going
to
impact
the
portfolio
substantially,
until
you
get
to
maybe
a
1%
or
2%
positioning,”
he
said.

Nearly
500
institutional
investors
revealed
allocations
into
the
spot
bitcoin
ETFs
in
the
first
three
months
of
the
year.
The
biggest
owner
as
of
March
31
was
hedge
fund

Millennium
Management,
which
revealed
$2
billion
in
holdings
across
a
number
of
the
funds,
or
roughly
3%
of
its
total
assets
under
management.