Australian Pension Fund Hostplus Plots Crypto Play, Here’s What It Would Actually Mean For Bitcoin

An Australian pension fund is exploring offering Bitcoin and other digital assets to its members as investment options.

A Rare Bitcoin Move

In what Bloomberg fittingly calls a “rare move”, Hostplus, a A$150 billion+ ($105 billion) Australian pension fund, is considering this cryptocurrency venture due to the high demand from some members, said Chief Investment Officer Sam Sicilia in an interview:

“There’s certainly a demand from some of our members who write in and say ‘why can’t I have access to cryptocurrency?’”

The fund is still in design phase, Sicilia clarified, and there are yet several capital matters to resolve, especially around safeguarding consumers. Besides, its implementation would depend entirely on regulatory approval. The CIO, however, is not worried about the wait and is ready to give regulators room the time they need:

“We’d love to get regulatory tick off, even if it means waiting another six months. We are long-term investors. Six months doesn’t really move the dial for us”

Were it to become a reality, the plan could come to fruition as soon as next financial year. Sicilia explained that the fund would add bitcoin and the other digital assets to its Choiceplus investment option, which lets members manage their own retirement portfolios. At present, only about 1% of the fund’s total assets sit in Choiceplus.

Hostplus first looked at cryptocurrencies a decade ago, and since then both Bitcoin and the broader crypto scene have change and evolved immensely. But the other digital assets the fund plans to incorporate are not just in the crypto asset class: music rights are included in those other digital assets, the Hostplus’ CIO added:

“We’re now at the stage where we’re revisiting digital currencies, not just Bitcoin, but just the broader range of digital currencies”

A Trillion-Dollar Industry

As niche as it sounds, Australia’s pension industry is consolidating into fewer mega-funds and is projected to hit A$5.7 trillion by 2030, concentrating power in a handful of allocators. Therefore, even a limited crypto allocation in a large fund’s self-directed sleeve could be an important signal for global institutions watching pensions as a late-cycle adopter.

Only isolated cases like AMP’s move into Bitcoin futures in 2024 have broken ranks so far. Regulators and many CIOs continue to cite high volatility and drawdowns from prior peaks as the main reason to keep crypto away from “safe” retirement pots.

Large pools of capital are gradually testing Bitcoin as a store-of-value or diversification play, especially after the US opened retirement channels more to crypto and spot ETFs normalized institutional access, as reported by our sister website NewsBTC back in February.

Despite that even a small on-ramp from a fund this size could matter at the margin in a market increasingly driven by institutional flows, pension adoption remains slow and regulators are still skeptical. Traders should treat this as an early test case rather than a green light for broad superannuation FOMO into Bitcoin.

Cover image from Perplexity, BTCUSD chart from Tradingview