The State of Michigan Retirement System reported investments in a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund, or ETF, offered by ARK 21Shares.
In a June 30 filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, Michigan’s state pension fund disclosed holding 110,000 shares of the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin (BTC) ETF under the ticker ARKB. The approximate value of the shares at the time of filing was roughly $6.6 million — a small percentage of the fund’s billions of dollars in assets.
The filing suggested that Michigan was the third US state to explore allocating a part of its pension fund to crypto through exchange-traded funds since Bitcoin ETFs were approved in January. In May, the State of Wisconsin Investment Board reported a $164 million investment in spot Bitcoin ETFs offered by Grayscale and BlackRock. On July 25, Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop hinted at a 2% investment in Bitcoin ETFs by the city’s pension fund.
Cointelegraph reached out to the Michigan Department of Treasury for comment but did not receive a response at the time of publication.
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The ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF, which opened for listing and trading on the Cboe BZX Exchange in January, had a net asset value of $64.68 as of July 25. This suggests that the Michigan investment could be worth more than $7 million if it maintained its holdings. The fund manages roughly $3.2 billion in assets under management.
21Shares and ARK Invest initially collaborated to apply for listing and trading a spot Ether (ETH) ETF on a US exchange, but the latter ended the partnership in June. The announcement followed the SEC approving spot Ether ETFs for the first time in May, with BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust and others going live on July 23.
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