Houston Firefighters Pension Fund Becomes the First US Public Pension Fund to Invest in Cryptocurrencies; a decision that could be vital for the Bitcoin market.

Many important milestones took place for America’s digital currency ecosystem this week. For the first time, a public pension fund in that country is openly investing in cryptocurrencies.

The news arrived the same week that Bitcoin’s first exchange-traded fund (ETF) debuted on the US stock market and right after the asset broke a new price record.

The Houston Firefighters Pension Fund, which manages about $ 4 billion in assets, has allocated part of its portfolio to investing in Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH).

Houston Pension fund Takes a Step Towards the CryptoWorld

The Houston Fire Relief and Retirement Fund (HFRRF) allocated USD 25 million to purchase BTC and ETH. According to the report, the Texas-based fund turned to the New York Digital Investment Group, or NYDIG, to consolidate the purchase.

The institutional provider will also bring cryptocurrency custody services to the pension fund, which is why it has created a private fund to acquire and guard the assets on behalf of HFRRF.

The decision makes the Houston Fire Fund the first public pension fund in the US to announce an investment in digital currencies; The fund’s chief investment officer, Ajit Singh, highlighted his confidence in the investment.

Texas public records highlight that the pension fund had close to $ 4.1 billion in total net assets like the net assets of June 2020. The group has allocated approximately 0.6% of its portfolio to digital assets. The fund is now responsible for the benefits of more than 6,600 active and retired firefighters, as well as surviving family members.

The Decisive Moment for Bitcoin in Public Pensions

HFRRF’s announcement arrives amid a bullish rally for the cryptocurrency market that has seen Bitcoin trading above $ 66,000 and Ethereum above $ 4,200, their best prices to date.

The increase has received fuel by the launch of the first Bitcoin futures ETF on the New York Stock Exchange earlier this week and the approval of two other ETFs.

Despite having this new access to a futures-linked investment vehicle, Singh told Bloomberg that the pension fund wanted to hold direct tokens rather than take the risk related to derivatives market investments.

Both State and local government pension funds are a powerful force in investment; These pensions could generate a more relevant impact on the cryptocurrency market, as they oversee at least $ 5.5 trillion in assets or more, according to the National Association of State Retirement Administrators.

Long-Term Potential and the Constant Rise of the Market

The unprecedented investment in the United States of America has the potential to benefit HFRRF’s more than six thousand members significantly in the long term if Bitcoin continues to appreciate against the dollar as it has throughout its history.

The Bloomberg report added that two other Virginia pension funds acquired cryptocurrencies for the first time in 2019 and recently plan to expand their investments by another $ 50 million.

In June, retirement plan provider, ForUsAll gave its clients the option to allocate up to 5% of their portfolio to cryptocurrencies, arguing that US citizens could be at a “disadvantage” if not given the chance of accessing digital currencies in their retirement plans.

By: Jenson Nuñez

The bitcoin refunds will begin In just a month if the compensation plan gets approved. Those affected users by the theft must set a registration on the Mt. Gox website to access compensation.

After seven years of waiting, the victims of the millionaire hack at the Mt. Gox exchange are now close to getting their money back in their pockets. The trustee revealed that those affected users approved the proposed compensation plan. Compensation for the theft of bitcoin (BTC) funds involves the return of various billions of US dollars (USD).

Victims could finally receive some of their stolen money within 30 days. The statement released by the Rehabilitation Trustee maintains that, in about a month, it will confirm compensation for the hack suffered by Mt. Gox.

In the cyberattack, which took place in February 2014, 850,000 bitcoins got stolen in total from 24,000 users of the Mt. Gox exchange. Considering that bitcoin was worth $ 543 back then, the pool of stolen funds equaled $ 461 million. To this day, this crime remains the most shocking hack in the history of the crypto ecosystem.

After the increase that the cryptocurrency had during these years, now that amount represents USD 55 billion. Right now, this cryptocurrency is worth around $ 65,000. The growth was pretty attractive, especially for the first bitcoiners of 2014.

Victims of Mt. Gox Bitcoin theft Voted in Favor of  the Plan

On October 20, 2021, those affected by the theft met with the Rehabilitation Trustee to reveal the vote on the compensation plan. This meeting, which happened in the Tokyo Court, resulted in the partial support of those involved in the compensation project.

The organization highlighted that 99% of the victims gave favorable votes to the rehabilitation plan, which adds to the partial return of the stolen funds. In February this year, the Trustee granted the affected creditors the right to vote on the repayment plan.

Following the verdict of those users involved, the Trustee reported that those affected must register on the Mt. Gox rehabilitation page to receive the refunds. Those who have not done so before the confirmation won’t be able to access the refund.

The victims named “Z2” are not eligible at this stage. They are all the people who did not claim the stolen funds before 2019. They represent a minimum percentage of those users affected, since 83% of the users who lost their bitcoin funds after the hack did a proper complaint.

The Biggest Bitcoin Hack in History

Mt. Gox was the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world and managed more than 70% of all Bitcoin transactions. It suffered several hacks totaling 1.35 million BTC. The latest attack in February 2014, went down in history as the most brutal exchange hack to date, counting losses that surpassed 850,000 BTC. More than 20,000 users have claimed their refunds.

On February 25, Mt. Gox released a document in which it communicated the assignment of the process to the lawyer Kobayashi and the resolution of the Tokyo District Court issued a few days before.

By: Jenson Nuñez

The ProShares Bitcoin ETF, launched last Tuesday, has raised $ 2.2 billion. The performance of bitcoin ETFs in the US already far exceeds those in Canada.

The launch of the second bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the United States of America, the Valkyrie Bitcoin Strategy ETF, took place this Friday on Nasdaq, according to Eric Balchunas, principal analyst of the Bloomberg ETF.

According to the estimated dates of the SEC’s response to ETF requests, the SEC commission had established that it would announce its decision on the request introduced by Valkyrie on October 24,

However, the regulator has not announced any bitcoin ETF approval so far. Applicants have been introducing modifications to their original prospectuses, and as they did not get contested by the SEC, there is just tacit approval.

The latest modification to its Valkyrie bitcoin ETF prospectus got filed with the SEC on Wednesday the 20th. It states that the ETF shares will get traded on Nasdaq under the symbol BTFD.

Eric Balchunas later received information from Valkyrie about the modification in the symbol for trading the ETF to BTF; he pointed out that the commercialization of the second bitcoin ETF would happen on Nasdaq.

Five US bitcoin ETFs?

This Thursday, Balchunas ratifies the information and points out that five bitcoin ETFs may enter the market in a period of 10 days. Among other potentials to join this new modality of investing in bitcoin would be Valkyrie and VanEck, the Galaxy Bitcoin Strategy ETF, and Ark Bitcoin Strategy proposals.

VanEck has also announced the launch of its bitcoin ETF for Monday, October 25, a fact reported by this medium.

In contrast, North America’s first bitcoin ETF, launched on February 18 on the Toronto Stock Exchange by Purpose Investments, gathered $ 165 million on its opening day in the first two days of trading.

The bitcoin ETF (BTCC acronym), launched on the Canadian market by Purpose Investments, traded CAD 80 million in the first hour of trading and CAD 200 million (approximately USD 165 million) on the first day. According to Yahoo Finance, the figure traded on Friday the 19th was CAD 350, which gives an approximate total of USD 421 in trades in two days.

According to a tweet from Bloomberg ETF specialist Eric Balchunas, these amounts represent a record in parallel with the volumes traded for traditional ETFs, both in Canada and the US; first ETFs, and also among the first in the US.

The most vital difference between the launches in these two countries is that in Canada, bitcoin spot ETF got released or directly backed by bitcoin.

In the United States of America, the initial launches contemplated so far are ETFs based on futures contracts. This situation happens because the SEC has expressed, through the opinions of its president, Gary Gensler, more preferences for the modality of futures.

By: Jenson Nuñez