The state’s pension fund increased its Bitcoin exposure while also consolidating its investment into a single exchange-traded fund.
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The State of Wisconsin Investment Board, the entity overseeing the state’s pension fund, increased its Bitcoin exposure to around $321 million, according to a Feb. 14 filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Wisconsin’s pension fund previously disclosed holding $164 million in Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in a May 2024 SEC filing.
At the time, the pension fund held approximately 2.4 million shares of BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), valued at $100 million, and 1 million shares of Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), valued at $64 million.
The pension fund’s most recent filing indicates that the fund has allocated all of its BTC exposure into IBIT and no longer holds any shares of GBTC.
The State of Wisconsin Investment Board’s increased Bitcoin exposure highlights a growing trend among pension funds allocating a portion of their assets to Bitcoin as a hedge against currency inflation and a diversified portfolio.
State of Wisconsin Investment Board BTC ETF exposure. Source: SEC
Related: Wyoming highway patrol union mulls adding Bitcoin to balance sheet: Report
Pension funds adopt Bitcoin to protect purchasing power
Although Bitcoin is notorious for its high volatility, pension funds have a long time horizon for their investments that allows them to capture long-term price appreciation while ignoring short-term price movements.
Attorney Allie Itami of Lathrop GPM told Cointelegraph that state pension funds could adopt crypto more easily than privately managed funds due to fiduciary restrictions under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) of 1974.
Following Wisconsin’s May 2024 filing disclosing BTC exposure, several state pension funds also disclosed BTC ETF holdings.
In July 2024, the State of Michigan Retirement System reported $6.6 million in BTC exposure, which is only a tiny fraction of the multibillion-dollar fund’s assets under management.
Florida chief financial officer Jimmy Patronis wrote a letter to the Florida State Board of Administration — the state’s pension manager — urging the fund to allocate a portion of its assets to BTC in October 2024.
More recently, in February 2025, North Carolina House of Representatives speaker Destin Hall introduced a bill to allow the state treasury to invest in digital assets indirectly by holding ETFs.
Magazine: Bitcoin ETFs make Coinbase a ‘honeypot’ for hackers and governments: Trezor CEO
