M&G Investments, a pension fund, invests $20 million in GFO-X, signifying a change in institutional confidence following the FTX collapse.
In light of Bitcoin’s (BTC) and the broader cryptocurrency market’s robust recovery this year, conventional market participants have begun to enter the sector.
London-based pension giant M&G Plc recently invested an extraordinary $20 million in a trading platform for crypto derivatives in the United Kingdom.
M&G Investments Displays Audacity
M&G Investments, the asset management division of pension giant M&G Plc, has invested $20 million in GFO-X, a trading platform for crypto derivatives based in the UK.
This action signifies an encouraging reorientation of institutional confidence in digital assets after the fall of FTX a year ago.
Meanwhile, the investment is made on behalf of the £129 billion Prudential With-Profits Fund through M&G’s Crossover strategy as part of a $30 million series B funding round for GFO-X.
GFO-X had established a prior strategic alliance with LCH SA, a majority-owned entity by the London Stock Exchange Group, to jointly develop and introduce a service known as LCH DigitalAssetClear by the end of 2023.
The objective of this service is to settle Bitcoin index futures and options contracts that are transacted on GFO-X.Â
Despite encountering inevitable setbacks attributable to client demand, its official launch is still anticipated for the first quarter of 2024.
However, the investment made by M&G in GFO-X may indicate that institutional support for cryptoasset infrastructure is being reversed.
Traditional asset managers, such as the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, Tiger Global Management, and Singapore’s Temasek Holdings, were compelled to write down their positions to zero following the collapse of FTX in November 2022.
Pension Fund Buying of Crypto
It has become abundantly evident that traditional institutional players have increased their presence in the crypto sector this year.
In light of the spot Bitcoin ETF introduction, analysts anticipate that traditional financial institutions’ exposure to the crypto market will likely increase moving forward.
Not only are major players and government institutions investing directly in cryptocurrencies, but they are also pursuing exposure to crypto firms.
In the third quarter of 2023, the National Pension Service, the largest investment group in South Korea, invested in Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN).
This development signifies the initial occurrence of the National Pension Service diversifying its U.S. stock portfolio with a virtual asset-related company.
Based on the stock holdings report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on the 16th, the National Pension Service acquired 282,673 Coinbase shares worth $19,934,100 (approximately equivalent to 26.1 billion won) during the third quarter.