World’s 3rd-largest public pension fund buys $34M of MicroStrategy shares

South Korea’s National Pension Service has bought 24,500 shares in the Bitcoin-buying firm MicroStrategy, adding to its crypto-exposed portfolio.
South Korea’s National Pension Service has bought 24,500 shares in the Bitcoin-buying firm MicroStrategy, adding to its crypto-exposed portfolio.

The third-largest public pension fund in the world has just bought nearly $34 million worth of shares in MicroStrategy, a Bitcoin-buying business intelligence firm.

South Korea’s National Pension Service (NPS) purchased 24,500 MicroStrategy shares for a price of $33.75 million, an Aug. 13 filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission shows.

The National Pension Service is South Korea’s public pension and the country’s largest investor, with over 1 trillion won ($777 billion) in total assets at the end of February.

The filing, which details its investments in the second quarter of the year, shows it still holds an over $51 million stake in Coinbase, holding 229,807 shares of the crypto exchange.

It also has $31.5 million invested into Roblox and $61.5 million worth of Jack Dorsey’s Block.

Thinking Ahead Institute’s annual Global Pension Assets Study shows that Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund is the world’s largest pension fund, with nearly $1.5 trillion in total assets as of 2023. Next is the Government Pension Fund of Norway, with just over $1.3 trillion. 

Related: 4 years in, MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin gamble beats Warren Buffett’s warning

Meanwhile, MicroStrategy stock has seen a 92.5% gain so far in 2024, climbing above $150 for the first time in over 24 years, according to Google Finance.

MicroStrategy’s stock price has nearly doubled so far this year. Source: Google Finance

The company has been buying Bitcoin (BTC) since August 2020, and its August earnings report shows it purchased an additional 12,222 Bitcoin for $805 million in the second quarter.

MicroStrategy’s latest Bitcoin buy brought its total holdings to 226,500 BTC, which is worth around $13.19 billion at Bitcoin’s current price.

It makes MicroStrategy the public company with the largest Bitcoin holdings, with around 13 times more Bitcoin than the world’s largest Bitcoin miner Marathon Digital, according to CoinGecko.

Others, too, think MicroStrategy is a good bet, with exchange-traded fund issuer Defiance ETFs launching a United States-based fund that targets a 175% long daily exposure to MicroStrategy.

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