South Korean Pension Fund Prepares to Invest in Crypto ETF – Bits Media

The Pension Fund for Researchers and Educators of South Korea decided to invest part of the capital in ETFs on bitcoin futures. For the first time, a Korean pension fund invests in the cryptocurrency industry.

Korean Mutual Help Association Foundation faculty and staff plans to begin
invest in the first half 2022 of the year: to a local cryptocurrency ETF, if one is launched, or to a similar tool on a foreign platform. The volume of investment will be determined by the Association's Investment Review Committee. The foundation made its 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 Bitcoin futures ETF in the United States.. This factor gave the asset legitimacy and turned it into a transparent product. Earlier attempts by fund managers in South Korea to make such investments were thwarted due to negative perceptions of cryptocurrencies by the country's financial regulators. This move by the Association may create a network effect for similar funds, and for asset managers.

“All this time, pension funds with a clearly public character had nothing left to do., how to observe the general craze for cryptocurrencies".

Remarkably, that the Association’s decision was made against the backdrop of tightening legislation on regulating cryptocurrencies in South Korea. The Faculty and Staff Mutual Aid Association administers the funds, into which faculty and staff are paid regularly during their tenure.

If this is the first time for South Korea that a social fund has invested in cryptocurrencies, Then in the US, last month, two pension funds from Virginia submitted applications to the regulator for approval of investments in a cryptocurrency fund. Analytics company Pureprofile reported last month, what 45 of 50 pension funds and insurance companies in the UK and USA with a total capital of more than $80 billion in the next five years they plan to invest in cryptocurrencies.