Steven Fulop, mayor of Jersey City, New Jersey, announced on Thursday that the city’s pension fund will allocate a portion of its investments into Bitcoin ETFs.
On the social media platform X, Fulop revealed that Jersey City’s pension fund is in the midst of updating its SEC paperwork, drawing a comparison to the Wisconsin Pension Fund. He expects the update to be completed by the end of the summer.
“The question on whether crypto and bitcoin is here to stay is largely over, and crypto and bitcoin won,” Fulop wrote on X. “I’ve been a long time believer (through ups/downs) in crypto but broadly, beyond crypto, I do believe blockchain is amongst the most important new technology innovation since the internet.”
On July 24, spot Bitcoin ETF inflows reached $1.47 billion, with BlackRock’s IBIT attracting the majority share at $865.31 million, according to The Block’s Data Dashboard.
Fulop, who is also a candidate for the Democratic nomination for New Jersey governor, drew parallels to the State of Wisconsin Investment Board, which invests in pension and other trust funds.
In a mid-May 13F filing with the SEC, the State of Wisconsin Investment Board disclosed holdings of $100 million in shares of BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust and nearly $64 million in the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust. Additionally, the board held shares in Coinbase, Block, Marathon Digital, Riot Platforms, and other crypto companies.
“Normally you don’t get these big fish institutions in the 13Fs for a year or so (when the ETF gets more liquidity) but as we’ve seen these are no ordinary launches. Good sign, expect more, as institutions tend to move in herds,” Bloomberg Senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas commented at the time.