Japan’s Nationwide Business Corporate Pension Fund plans to allocate about 1% of the approximately 21.3 billion yen (US$130 million) of assets it manages to cryptocurrency, according to a report in Nikkei.
The Okayama-based corporate pension fund will invest in a passive fund managed by a hedge fund that holds multiple crypto assets, the Japanese financial newspaper says in the report published on June 23. The hedge fund wasn’t named.
According to the report, the move is part of the fund’s diversification efforts. Some 80% of the fund’s assets are currently denominated in Japanese yen, 15% in US dollars and the rest in other currencies.
The planned move comes after Japan’s House of Representatives passed legislation on June 11 to bring cryptocurrency assets under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act. The report says the legislation is expected to proceed to the House of Councillors and could create a path for crypto exchange-traded funds.
Nationwide Business Corporate Pension Fund manages retirement savings for employees of 1,200 small and mid-sized businesses. The pension fund could not be reached for comment.
