As of June 30, the Michigan pension fund disclosed that it held 110,000 shares of the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETFs in an SEC filing.
Investments in a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund, or ETF, offered by ARK 21Shares were reported by the State of Michigan Retirement System.
Michigan’s state pension fund disclosed its ownership of 110,000 shares of the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF under the ticker ARKB in a filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission on June 30. The shares’ estimated value at the time of filing was approximately $6.6 million, representing a minuscule fraction of the fund’s billions of dollars in assets.
The filing indicated that Michigan was the third state in the United States to investigate the possibility of designating a portion of its pension fund to cryptocurrency through exchange-traded funds since the approval of Bitcoin ETFs in January. The State of Wisconsin Investment Board reported a $164 million investment in spot Bitcoin ETFs offered by Grayscale and BlackRock in May. On July 25, Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop suggested that the city’s pension fund may invest 2% in Bitcoin ETFs.
At the time of publication, Cointelegraph has yet to receive a response from the Michigan Department of Treasury regarding its request for comment.
As of July 25, the net asset value of the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF, which was listed and traded on the Cboe BZX Exchange in January, was $64.68. This value implies that the Michigan investment could be worth more than $7 million if it were to maintain its holdings. The fund oversees approximately $3.2 billion in assets under management.
21Shares and ARK Invest initially collaborated to register for the listing and trading of a spot Ether ETF on a US exchange. However, the latter terminated the partnership in June. The announcement was made after the SEC approved spot Ether ETFs in May. BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust and other Ether ETFs went live on July 23.