A person walks previous a poster that informs prospects that bitcoin can be utilized on this store in Tokyo on January 06, 2018.
Toru Yamanaka | Afp | Getty Pictures
Japan’s authorities pension fund on Tuesday mentioned it’s requesting info on “illiquidity property” similar to bitcoin, as a part of analysis into potential new investments.
The Authorities Pension Funding Fund (GPIF) of Japan, the world’s largest pension fund by property underneath administration on a number of completely different rankings, mentioned it’s on the lookout for “primary info” on illiquid property apart from these by which it already invests.
GPIF mentioned it at the moment places funds in home and international bonds and shares, actual property, infrastructure and personal fairness. It’s now on the lookout for details about different property similar to forests, farmland, gold and bitcoin and the way these may be integrated into the portfolio of pension funds.
There isn’t any indication that GPIF will put money into bitcoin or different cryptocurrencies.
GPIF’s assertion comes days after bitcoin hit an all-time excessive and after the world’s largest cryptocurrency has rallied greater than 130% over the past yr.
That rally is partially due to the launch of bitcoin exchange-traded funds within the U.S. this yr, which has attracted billions of {dollars} of inflows.
Pension funds have been very cautious about entering into cryptocurrency investments because of the latter’s unstable nature. Some have nonetheless dipped their toes, with South Korea’s pension fund — the Nationwide Pension Service — shopping for shares of Coinbase final yr.
In Japan, the federal government in February proposed a legislation that might, if handed, permit funding funds to carry digital property like cryptocurrencies.
