The State of Michigan Retirement System has sharply increased its exposure to Bitcoin, tripling its holdings in the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF to 300,000 shares, valued at $11.4 million in Q2.
Key Takeaways:
- Michigan tripled its Bitcoin ETF holdings in Q2, now holding $11.4 million.
- The pension fund also maintains a $13.6 million Ethereum position.
- Despite four straight days of ETF outflows, U.S. Bitcoin ETFs still hold 6.46% of all BTC.
As of March 31, the $19.3 billion pension fund held 100,000 shares, according to a 13F filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday.
Alongside Bitcoin, Michigan also holds a steady Ethereum allocation through 460,000 shares of the Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETHE), currently valued at around $13.6 million, a position it has maintained since September 2024.
Michigan Joins Wave of US Pensions Doubling Down on Crypto
The move places Michigan among a growing cohort of U.S. state pension funds increasing exposure to crypto-linked assets.
The State of Wisconsin Investment Board, for instance, now holds over 6 million shares of BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), worth approximately $387.3 million.
Despite this growing interest, Bitcoin ETFs recently experienced four straight days of outflows, totaling $1.4 billion, according to Farside Investors.
Bitcoin spot ETFs saw a net outflow of $196.18 million on August 5, marking the fourth consecutive day of withdrawals.
Fidelity’s FBTC and BlackRock’s IBIT led the outflows, while Grayscale’s GBTC also posted losses.
FBTC lost nearly $100 million but still holds $22.86 billion in assets, with $11.94 billion in cumulative inflows. IBIT remains the largest by AUM at $83.81 billion. No activity was recorded for ARKB, BITB, or HODL, reflecting a cautious market stance across some funds.
Despite recent exits, total cumulative inflows across U.S. Bitcoin ETFs stand at $53.65 billion, with ETFs holding about 6.46% of all Bitcoin.
ARKB, the ETF held by Michigan, recorded just one day of outflows during that period, $5.1 million on Friday.
Pension Funds Could Push Bitcoin to $200K by 2025
Standard Chartered, in a February note, projected Bitcoin could reach $200,000 by the end of 2025, with pension funds expected to be key drivers.
“We expect institutional flows into Bitcoin in 2025 to exceed 2024 levels,” the bank wrote, pointing to long-only funds such as state pensions as the next major inflow source.
In June, Billionaire Philippe Laffont, founder of Coatue Management, also included Bitcoin in his “Fantastic 40,” a handpicked list of what he considers the top investment opportunities for the next five years.
The hedge fund billionaire ranked Bitcoin alongside Microsoft, Nvidia, Amazon, and Meta, notably excluding Apple and Google from his top five.
Despite not yet owning Bitcoin, Laffont projects its market cap could more than double to over $5 trillion by 2030, putting it in the same league as tech giants.
As reported, Shunyet Jan, Head of Derivatives at Bybit, has projected that Bitcoin could reach $125,000 by the end of Q2 if current trends persist.
Likewise, crypto analyst Scott Melker has said he believes Bitcoin could surge to $250,000 by the end of 2025, driven by institutional demand and a maturing market structure.
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