South Korea’s National Pension Service (NPS), the world’s third-largest pension fund by assets, has expanded its cryptocurrency exposure by purchasing $33.7 million worth of MicroStrategy shares in Q2 this year. The revelation came in the NPS’ holdings report submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this week, showing the fund acquired 24,500 shares of MicroStrategy during this period.
The decision is part of the NPS’ broader strategy to elevate its indirect exposure to cryptocurrency assets like bitcoin. Previously, the pension fund had invested in 282,673 shares of Coinbase, worth approximately $19.9 million at the time, during Q3 of last year.
The recent filing demonstrates that the NPS increased its Coinbase Global Inc. holdings to 229,807 shares by the end of June, valued around $51 million. Notably, these figures are a reduction from the fund’s March holdings, which totalled 253,763 Coinbase shares.
MicroStrategy is a significant player in the cryptocurrency field, serving as the largest corporate bitcoin holder with 226,500 bitcoins (BTC), equivalent to about $13.2 billion. As such, many traditional market investors utilise MicroStrategy as a proxy for bitcoin exposure due to its substantial holdings.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission recently greenlit the first leveraged exchange-traded fund targeting MicroStrategy, signaling even further mainstream recognition and acceptance. As of now, MicroStrategy’s stock has undergone a notable uptick in 2021, posting a 92% increase, whereas Coinbase’s stock has risen 25% on a year-to-date basis.