UK-based pension scheme makes 3% Bitcoin allocation
2024-11-05

United Kingdom-based pension specialist Cartwright reported that an “unnamed scheme” had made a 3% allocation of Bitcoin into its pension fund.
According to a Nov. 4 notice, Cartwright reported that “after a rigorous training and due diligence process,” a UK pension scheme had chosen to make the Bitcoin BTCUSD allocation, citing its “long investment time horizon.” 
The firm’s head of investment implementation, Steve Robinson, said the crypto investment would help “reduce reliance on employer contribution.”
The company did not provide additional details about the nature of the pension scheme or how much would be invested. Cointelegraph reached out to Cartwright for comment but did not receive a response at the time of publication.
Are pension funds moving into crypto?
Many local and federal governments turned to crypto investments for pension funds in 2024. In the UK, Legal and General, a pension and investment firm with $1.5 trillion in assets under management, announced in October that it would consider offering tokenized funds. 
South Korea’s pension service reported roughly $34 million in exposure to MicroStrategy, which heavily invests in Bitcoin. As of Sept. 30, the State of Michigan Retirement System held roughly $18 million in shares of Bitcoin and Ether ETHUSD exchange-traded products.
The UK government changed hands after a July election, in which the Conservatives lost control to Labour for the first time in 14 years. 
Before the UK election, some experts suggested that digital asset regulation would not be a high priority for the new government, which only released its proposed budget in November. The Financial Conduct Authority in the UK essentially acts as the country’s financial watchdog, filing enforcement actions against crypto firms when needed. 