New Zealand. Investment or speculation: KiwiSaver fund enters the bitcoin era
NZ Funds Management’s KiwiSaver growth fund has invested in bitcoin, and chief investment officer James Grigor expects that within five years it will feature in more KiwiSaver schemes.
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The KiwiSaver provider changed its offer documents in October to allow it to invest in cryptocurrencies for the first time.
Grigor said bitcoin had become a commodity, with many of the attractive hallmarks of gold, which investors often bought as a store of value in times of economic crisis.
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“If you are happy to invest in gold, you can’t really discount bitcoin,” Grigor said.
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But rival KiwiSaver providers said bitcoin was a speculative asset, with one saying putting KiwiSaver money into it was more like gambling than investing.
NZ Fund’s KiwiSaver Growth Strategy fund, which had investments worth just over $350 million at the end of December, had around 5 per cent of its money in bitcoin, Grigor said.
“Our KiwiSaver is majority built up through traditional assets classes, your bonds and shares, and they will always be the asset classes that compound over time to give people the best retirement they can get,” he said.
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