First UK Pension Fund Makes Direct Bitcoin Investment

Pensions specialist Cartwright announced Monday that it had successfully guided an unnamed client in the UK to make a considerable investment into Bitcoin.

A UK pension fund has made a direct investment in apex cryptocurrency Bitcoin, marking the first move of its kind in the nation, pension advisory firm Cartwright announced on Monday.

The undisclosed fund allocated 3% of its £50 million ($65 million) to BTC in October following “lengthy consultations with the scheme’s trustees, where ESG, investment case, and security were all addressed at length,” Glenn Cameron, head of digital assets at Cartwright told Corporate Advisor.

What makes this investment particularly noteworthy is that the pension fund is actually investing in Bitcoin itself rather than a proxy such as a spot BTC ETF. The report reveals that the private key is divided between five separate institutions.

Cartwright said it made the recommendation owing to Bitcoin's long-term returns. According to CoinGecko data, the top crypto has soared by almost 100,000% since 2013.

According to Sam Roberts, the firm's director of investment consulting, Bitcoin is well suited to the scheme’s 10-year investment horizon.

“Trustees are increasingly looking for innovative solutions to future-proof their schemes in the face of economic challenges,” Roberts posited. This Bitcoin allocation is a strategic move that not only offers diversification but also taps into an asset class with a unique asymmetric risk-return profile.”

Roberts went on to say that he hoped the “strategic move” would be emulated by others.

“We are proud to have led this groundbreaking move,” he declared, “which we hope will be the start of a trend for institutional investors in the UK to catch up with their increasing number of peers and competitors around the world who are already taking advantage of Bitcoin’s unique attributes.”

Cartwright further stated that it anticipates institutional Bitcoin adoption to be similar to when pension schemes started purchasing equities in the 1970s. It might be painfully slow at first, but then, ultimately, it would become a bad idea not to allocate the asset to a portfolio.

Cameron also believes that Bitcoin’s unique asymmetric return profile indicates that even a small allocation can considerably improve financial performance.

Institutional adoption of Bitcoin has skyrocketed across the globe, specifically in the United States, following the Securities and Exchange Commission’s historic greenlighting of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in January.

These novel investment vehicles allow traditional investors to gain exposure to the cryptocurrency through stock-like shares on regulated exchanges without the hassle of storing the asset.

The funds were introduced by Wall Street giants, including BlackRock and Fidelity, and have so far collectively accumulated over 1 million BTC — fast closing in on Satoshi Nakamoto’s stack.