Australian superannuation funds are exploring offering bitcoin and other digital assets as investment options to their members.
Rare Bitcoin Movements
In what Bloomberg aptly calls a “rare move,” Hostplus, an Australian pension fund with more than A$150 billion ($105 billion), is considering this cryptocurrency venture due to high demand from some of its members, Chief Investment Officer Sam Sicilia said in an interview.
“We definitely have had some of our members write to us asking, ‘Why can’t I access my cryptocurrency?’”
Sicilia said the fund is still in the design phase and there are still some important issues to address, particularly around consumer protection. Moreover, its implementation is entirely dependent on regulatory approval. But CIOs aren’t worried about wait times and are prepared to give regulators the time they need.
“We want the restrictions lifted, even if we have to wait another six months. We are long-term investors. Six months doesn’t really move the dial for us.”
If realized, the plan could come to fruition as early as next fiscal year. Sicilia explained that the fund will add Bitcoin and other digital assets to Choiceplus investment options, allowing members to manage their own retirement portfolios. Currently, Choice Plus holds only about 1% of the fund’s total assets.
Hostplus first looked at cryptocurrencies over 10 years ago, and since then both Bitcoin and the wider cryptocurrency scene have changed and evolved tremendously. However, the other digital assets the fund plans to integrate are not limited to the cryptocurrency asset class. Music rights are also included among these other digital assets, Hostplus’ CIO added.
“We are now in the process of reexamining not only Bitcoin but the broader range of digital currencies.”
A trillion dollar industry
As niche as it sounds, Australia’s superannuation industry is consolidating into fewer large funds and is expected to reach A$5.7 trillion by 2030, concentrating power in the hands of a few allocators. Therefore, even a limited cryptocurrency allocation in the self-managed sleeves of a large fund could be an important signal for global institutions observing pensions as late-cycle adopters.
Only isolated cases, such as AMP’s foray into Bitcoin futures in 2024, have broken ranks so far. Regulators and many CIOs continue to cite high volatility and declines from previous peaks as primary reasons for keeping cryptocurrencies away from “safe” retirement markets.
As reported by our sister website NewsBTC in February, large pools of capital are increasingly testing Bitcoin as a store of value or diversification play. This is especially true after the US opens up more of its retirement channels to cryptocurrencies and discovers the normalized institutional approach of ETFs.
Pension adoption remains slow and regulators remain skeptical, although even a small entry in a fund of this size could be problematic for margins in a market increasingly driven by institutional flows. Traders should treat this as an early test case rather than a green light for widespread pension FOMO on Bitcoin.
At the moment of writing, BTC trades for $71k. Source: BTCUSD on Tradingview
Cover image by Perplexity, BTCUSD chart by Tradingview
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