30s Summary

British pension specialist, Cartwright, has led the country’s first pension fund to invest directly into bitcoin, putting 3% of the fund’s £50m ($65m) assets into the cryptocurrency. The company is also introducing a Bitcoin Employee Benefits scheme, with five firms showing interest. The move comes after extensive discussions by the fund’s scheme’s trustees on bitcoin’s ESG credentials, its investment case and security.

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Cartwright, a British pension specialist, has led a major breakthrough by steering the country’s first pension fund to invest in bitcoin. The fund, which chose to remain anonymous, decided to place 3% of its entire assets straight into bitcoin. This is unlike the norm where funds usually use a proxy like a spot ETF. Being a pioneer in new ventures, Cartwright is now introducing a Bitcoin Employee Benefits scheme. With this, companies can make payments directly into their employee’s bitcoin wallets. Currently, five companies have shown interest in this arrangement.

Last month, the unnamed pension fund put 3% of its £50 million (that’s about $65 million) into bitcoin. This came after the fund’s scheme’s trustees underwent extensive discussions where bitcoin’s ESG, investment case, and security were all thoroughly scrutinized, according to Glenn Cameron, who heads digital assets at Cartwright.

What stands out in this investment is not just that the pension fund invested directly in the crypto itself, but also the size of the investment. In comparison, the State of Wisconsin pension plan’s investment in bitcoin was just about 0.1% of the plan’s assets. However, this UK pension fund investment represents a whopping 3% of its assets.

Cartwright, based in Hampshire in the UK, and according to LinkedIn, the company has a strength of between 51 to 200 employees. The total value of assets under their advisory is currently unknown.