South Korea’s National Pension Service (NPS) has bought $34 million worth of shares in MicroStrategy, the business intelligence company that has amassed billions in Bitcoin.
JUST IN: 🇰🇷 South Korean pension fund reports it bought $34 million worth of MicroStrategy shares. photo.twitter.com/Sg5cRAkjzZ
— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) August 16, 2024
According to a recent SEC filingNPS bought 24,500 shares of MicroStrategy stock in the second quarter at an average price of $1.377. This translates to about 245,000 shares after MicroStrategy’s 10-for-1 stock split this month.
As South Korea’s public pension fund, NPS is the country’s largest institutional investor, with over $777 billion in assets. MicroStrategy’s $34 million investment could be seen as an indirect bet on Bitcoin.
MicroStrategy holds the most Bitcoin of any publicly traded company, with over 226,500 BTC worth about $13.2 billion. The company took on debt to raise the bulk of its Bitcoin, making the stock a leveraged play on Bitcoin.
NPS joins a growing list of pension and sovereign wealth funds gaining exposure to Bitcoin through MicroStrategy. The Norwegian Central Bank and the Swiss National Bank have also previously disclosed MicroStrategy holdings.
MicroStrategy’s stock price has nearly doubled this year as more institutional players bet on the company’s Bitcoin strategy. Defiance ETFs even launched a leveraged ETF which targets 175% of MicroStrategy’s daily movements.
The global adoption of MicroStrategy shares by major pension funds confirms the emergence of Bitcoin as the best investment option for publicly traded companies.