AMP has made a $27 million investment in Bitcoin, the first major Australian pension fund to enter the crypto market.
AMP Wealth Management, one of AustraliaThe largest wealth managers with billions of assets under management, have invested $27 million in Bitcoin (BTC), becoming the first major superannuation fund in the country to do so, The Australian Financial Review learned.
According to the report, the investment was made in May when Bitcoin was trading between $60,000 and $70,000. AMP chief investment officer Anna Shelley explained that the allocation, representing 0.05% of the company's $57 billion in assets, was part of a wider diversification strategy.
Despite the AMP investment, other pension funds have indicated that they do not intend to follow suit to crypto, the AFR notes. For example, another pension fund AustralianSuper clarified that while it is exploring blockchain technology, it “has no current plans to invest directly in cryptocurrencies.”
Commenting on the move, AMP senior portfolio manager Steve Flegg explained in a LinkedIn report that the company “generally thought that while crypto is risky, new and not yet fully proven, “however, the fund “had grown too large, and its potential. too great to continue to be neglected.”
Australia, meanwhile, is working to close regulatory gaps in the crypto sector and align it with existing financial laws. As crypto.news reported earlier, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission has published recommendations for deeper oversight of the crypto market, aiming to strengthen “consumer protection”.
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