Firefighters pension fund invests 25$ million in crypto

[uneng]

Highlights:

The Houston Firefighters’ Relief and Retirement Fund – which is based in Texas in the US and has $5.5bn of assets banked – said it invested $25m in Bitcoin and Ether.

“I see this as another tool to manage my risk,” said Ajit Singh, the chief investment officer for fund. “It has a positive expected return and it manages my risk. It has a low correlation to every other asset class.”

Singh said he preferred direct tokens, rather than taking on risk associated with futures-related investments.

The Houston fund handles retirement benefits for more than 6,600 active and retired firefighters and family beneficiaries. Since 2004, active firefighters have contributed 9% of their salary to the fund, with the city of Houston contributing at least twice that amount.

Red hot: Houston firefighters pension fund goes crypto

Although 25$ million represents less than 0,5% of their total funds, I think that is good news for bitcoin and ethereum enthusiasts. Serious investors help crypto currencies to grow solid and dilute volatility, what prevents deep corrections and crashes in the market. News like this should be spreaded to most people as possible, so they can also suggest crypto investments for the pension funds or investment funds in general they belong.

Do you agree news like this have a positive impact or are they indifferent in your opinion?

[The Sceptical Chymist]

Singh said he preferred direct tokens, rather than taking on risk associated with futures-related investments.

That makes me wonder about where the coins he bought for the fund were purchased and how they're going to be stored.  I think it's very cool that Singh chose to buy BTC and ETH outright (if I'm reading this correctly) instead of opting for derivatives, though I'm not sure if those futures/derivatives are any more risky than just owning the underlying coins.

25$ million represents less than 0,5% of their total funds

IMO any more than that would be playing with fire--no pun intended.  There's a reason crypto generally doesn't correlate with other asset classes, and I think that's because it's such a new thing and hasn't attracted the attention of huge institutional investors who tend to buy and sell stocks and whatever else in tandem. 

Firefighters are among the bravest people in the world, and I really hope this investment strategy of Singh's bears fruit.  $25 million doesn't seem like a lot for a pension fund, but maybe that's because I'm not in that industry.

[TheNineClub]

Funds like that have been investing into diverse options like this for quite some time, taking more risks than we would think of such an organisation, so Inam not really surprised about this. But things like this are the first steps into mass addoption and it makes me hopefull.

[Lucius]

Although 25$ million represents less than 0,5% of their total funds, I think that is good news...
Do you agree news like this have a positive impact or are they indifferent in your opinion?

$25 million is a drop in the ocean when it comes to the amount of money circulating through Bitcoin on a daily basis, and a very cautious investment as it represents only 0.5% of the total fund. No doubt this is good news, but I don’t believe it can have any significant impact globally, perhaps in the US, or even just in the local community.

However, this is not the first case of pension funds investing in Bitcoin(indirectly), as it started happening 2 years ago.

Two separate pension funds that collectively manage $5.1 billion in assets for the state’s police force and other employees have joined a $40 million investment in the Morgan Creek Blockchain Opportunities Fund, which in addition to backing some of the best-known startups in the space, plans to invest in cryptocurrency.
Already, a portion of the $40 million has been invested in startups including Bakkt, the cryptocurrency exchange co-owned by Starbucks and the Intercontinental Exchange, which runs the New York Stock Exchange.

[yananda]

it becomes everyone's freedom to manage their finances in investing, every thing is considered good or bad and only time will tell. Hope we are always wise in making decisions

[pealr12]

Well this type of investment from institutions are good news to the btc community, it boost the reputation of btc in the eyes of other institutions even higher, I guess when btc price has hit a much higher price this investment will increase the total funds of the company. Good decision by the firefighters.

[fiulpro]

The idea of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies being least correlated to any first class asset is completely justified. The whole reason why some people fled to cryptocurrencies during pandemic was because of the inability of the government to sustain the general demand and jobs, the inability of big companies to tackle inflation and people had to rely on other things, bitcoin's value rose during the pandemic which is an exceptional job in itself. But the whole point would be to *be able to monitor the funds calmly and securely* they are not the first company to invest their money like this, rather they have to worry more about doing it properly.
I sincerely believe that the whole idea of having a pension fund is sustainability and security, therefore there institutions even though might be doing a good job have to employee people who are very well versed with cryptocurrencies and trading.
Overall an exceptional news, seeing bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies getting adopted more and more.

[Mauser]

Do you agree news like this have a positive impact or are they indifferent in your opinion?

I really hope that news like this have a positive impact on the crypto market. It's another asset manager that goes for the crypto market. Like you said yourself, 0.45% of their assets is not a lot to invest in crypto. For them it's probably just a form of tail risk management. If crypto markets keep rising than they are invested and will profit of it. And its another way to get rid of your access cash. Most of these large investment funds have fixed limits of how much money they can invest in stocks and bonds. So going for cryptos can be a way to get around such restrictions.
25m is not a lot for the crypto market, the direct effect on the prices should be marginal to indefferent. But there is a longterm effect as well, all the other asset managers and pension funds will read about this move and face some dilemma now. Should the consider investing themselves or not. If the fund will make a good profit of their crypto holdings the other funds who didn't buy any will look very bad.

[alpamar99]

I'm not too surprised by this because sooner or later something like this will happen.
on the other hand this is a pretty good first step for massive adoption.
on the other hand this is a pretty good thing for crypto holders especially indeed bitcoin and ether because indirectly this will be a breath of fresh air for them with adoption like this it will definitely trigger something extraordinary in the future.

[hatshepsut93]

I hope that they bought more BTC than ETH, and not the vice versa or 50/50, because while Bitcoin is a relatively safe bet, ETH has only been riding the various useless hypes like ICO, DeFi, NFT - and it won't be able to ride them forever, at some point the market will tire of them like it grew tired of beanie babies. Ethereum, despite continuously making bold claims, still hasn't helped create something useful for the real world, and not just crypto speculators.

[Oceat]

it becomes everyone's freedom to manage their finances in investing, every thing is considered good or bad and only time will tell. Hope we are always wise in making decisions

Why are you so worried about if it's a wise decision when he chose Bitcoin and Ethereum to invest in the first place? I'm sure he's doing his own research and $25mn is just a small amount if you compare it to their total funds. It's actually helping the adoption of Bitcoin to move fast and soon people will recognize Bitcoin as a currency.

Imagine a government employee investing in Bitcoin and is planning to hodl it for a long time? Although, we don't know what are their plan in the future about of the money but I guess inflation had something to do with it that's why he made a wise decision to invest their retirement funds.

[palle11]

Do you agree news like this have a positive impact or are they indifferent in your opinion?

This is the angle that I'm considering. If such amount of money be pumped into buying cryptocurrency that is huge and it will push more liquity, pricing is going to appreciate. This is a positive news that make hodlers that understand the market to buy more in expectation of increase.

[Oilacris]

Do you agree news like this have a positive impact or are they indifferent in your opinion?

This is the angle that I'm considering. If such amount of money be pumped into buying cryptocurrency that is huge and it will push more liquity, pricing is going to appreciate. This is a positive news that make hodlers that understand the market to buy more in expectation of increase.

Anything that do talks about recognition or adoption towards Bitcoin then its always been a good news as long there would be some recognitions out of those investors even on what part or industry
they do came from then having this additional would always been good.

Pension fund invested? Quite risky but they do know on what they are doing because they cant really just make such decision without looking those risk.

They wont really be that dumb on making such action without looking into those probable situations that they may facing on.

[Tumanggor]

~

Do you agree news like this have a positive impact or are they indifferent in your opinion?

100% agree

Cryptocurrency is the best investment asset for everyone's future and it is very wise to start investing in crypto from now on

I hope things like this can be done by other institutions so that retirees can feel the extraordinary benefits of investing in crypto in the future

[TheGreatPython]

Talking about the volatility of Bitcoin, I do wonder whether the volatility is something that is ever going to end. Since the market is based on demand and supply, when there are no supply any longer, and the demand continues, will the volatility be any less than what it is right now?

Anyways, it’s good that there are now big institutions and companies that are considering Bitcoin as a store of value. I don’t think they made a wrong choice by choosing Bitcoin to store their value, because in few years to come the price of Bitcoin as we all know it is going to increase more than what we have now. A lot of analysts had predicted the price to reach $100,000 in a few years, and then investing at this time puts them in a better position to be able to make a better profit in a short time. This kind of news is starting to become a regular news and I’m always looking forward to news like this.

[yhiaali3]

No, it is not at all indifferent, on the contrary, it is very important news in creating a positive general community towards Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, such news gives great incentives to people who do not have enough conviction about cryptocurrencies, and it forces governments to legislate (regulatory laws of cryptocurrencies) in order to deal with these new things that are beginning to emerge in the real world.
In my opinion, publishing such news is very encouraging for the growth of cryptocurrencies and helps accelerate the global adoption of cryptocurrencies.

[sheenshane]

Do you agree news like this have a positive impact or are they indifferent in your opinion?

I tend to agree, though it is not give a huge impact at least, it will help Bitcoin that react and will increase the price. 
Oh, why?  I heard a lot of good news these days it seems it will trigger to make another new ATH, it might not only twice and I have suspected that there could be another one.

However, this idea might be risky for them if the price goes down and it could also have benefits if the price goes up.  I hope they already understand the word volatile and are ready to face possible consequences ahead.

[TelolettOm]

That is big amount of money. And we can see how serious he is, taking the high risks. But he is in his own considaration and also choices to take the risks.
That is because he really trust in Bitcoin and Ethereum. The goos thing is that he invested in two top crypto. So the risks may be less than investing in hype coins which must not be done.
every good news may give influence. But let's see how big the influence is to make for crypto industry.

[TimeTeller]

That is big amount of money. And we can see how serious he is, taking the high risks. But he is in his own considaration and also choices to take the risks.
That is because he really trust in Bitcoin and Ethereum. The goos thing is that he invested in two top crypto. So the risks may be less than investing in hype coins which must not be done.
every good news may give influence. But let's see how big the influence is to make for crypto industry.

I think, this is much better to hear rather than them buying these meme tokens.
BTC and ETH are rock solid and most of us believe that choosing the top 2 alts is a good decision.
Before they invested those million-dollar funds, I am certain that they have done their own homework here.
So I am assuming they know what they are doing and they know how to safeguard those funds.
We will be reading more related news in the coming days as some entities are really interested in crypto these days.

[Vaskiy]

Do you agree news like this have a positive impact or are they indifferent in your opinion?

I tend to agree, though it is not give a huge impact at least, it will help Bitcoin that react and will increase the price.  
Oh, why?  I heard a lot of good news these days it seems it will trigger to make another new ATH, it might not only twice and I have suspected that there could be another one.

However, this idea might be risky for them if the price goes down and it could also have benefits if the price goes up.  I hope they already understand the word volatile and are ready to face possible consequences ahead.

$25m is a big amount. I find them taking it as an experiment. Based on the profit generated with time there is more chance of more investment. The way they've chosen the coins for investment is really good. This shows the plan of long term plans than short term profiting. As said this isn't gonna make big impact on the market in terms of growth, but maybe other state firefighters organization too can follow this. When this happens gradually the community keeps widening. This in long term could make some combined impact over the market.