According to a filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the State of Michigan Retirement System now holds 110,000 shares in the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB).
This makes Michigan the third state pension fund in the U.S. to invest in Bitcoin ETFs, following the lead of Wisconsin and New Jersey. Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas said that:
“Michigan’s Pension bought up some ARKB, which we have valued at $7.4 million. It’s a small percentage for them, but it’s a start. They are now the third pension to report owning a Bitcoin ETF.”
Bitcoin makes a splash in state pensions
Earlier this year, the State of Wisconsin Investment Board (SWIB) reported a significant $164 million investment in Bitcoin through BlackRock’s IBIT ETF and Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust (GBTC).
As Cryptopolitan reported yesterday, Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop also shared that the city’s pension fund is considering investing in Bitcoin. Fulop said:
“I’ve been a long-time believer (through ups and downs) in crypto but broadly, beyond crypto, I do believe blockchain is amongst the most important new technology innovations since the internet.”
Meanwhile, crypto has become quite popular this election cycle. In Michigan’s 13th Congressional District, the crypto Political Action Committee (PAC) threw its support behind incumbent Shri Thanedar with a $1 million media campaign.
The Democratic representative is a crypto advocate and has been rated as “strongly supportive” by the Stand With Crypto initiative. Thanedar has been in the U.S. Congress since 2023 and has supported many pro-crypto legislation.
He voted for the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act and backed a resolution to overturn an SEC rule that restricted banks from handling cryptocurrencies.
In May, the U.S. Congress passed two pro-crypto bills, a departure from years of political deadlock. This support was unexpected from leading Democrats and it might have been influenced by the rising interest in cryptocurrency among voters.
But it came after they approved spot Bitcoin ETFs, and they just approved Ethereum’s spot ETFs this week.
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