Sovereign Wealth Funds are Looking to Buy Bitcoin

On Wednesday, NYDIG CEO Robby Gutmann revealed that unnamed sovereign wealth funds have been approaching the firm with inquiries about buying bitcoin, at Real Vision’s online Crypto Gathering event.

In the same conversation, former global hedge fund manager and Real Vision CEO Raoul Pal mentioned that Singapore Exchange and state-owned investment firm Temasek Holdings has been buying bitcoin. Temasek is known to be the higher risk-leaning fund of Singapore’s two sovereign wealth funds.

Sovereign wealth funds, the investment arms of cash-rich nations, are coming for bitcoin as they look at new strategies to protect their interests after the last 18 months of global economic turmoil. Combined, they have almost $8 trillion in assets under management as of December, according to Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute.

Last month GIC, Singapore’s more conservative sovereign wealth fund, led an $80 million investment in Anchorage, the US-based “crypto bank” for financial institutions. Anchorage president Diogo Monica told Blockworks at the time that other sovereign wealth funds are, like GIC, “waking up to crypto and coming in in a meaningful way.”

Anchorage CEO Nathan McCauley is also on record saying the company is speaking with several state governments about adding crypto to their treasuries.

And though Norway’s Oil Fund, one of the top sovereign wealth funds in the world with more than $1.3 trillion in AUM, only holds bitcoin indirectly (through its 2% stake in MicroStrategy), it could be the next state government to buy it. Earlier this month Aker ASA, a 180-year-old Norwegian industrial holding company with ownership in oil and gas services companies, created a unit dedicated to investing in bitcoin and has about $58.6 million in it now. 

Based on what institutional demand has done for bitcoin in the last five months, sovereign wealth backing would probably bring even more legitimacy and adoption to the digital asset class.