The South Korean government appears to be on a buying spree. The National Pension Service (NPS), the world’s third-largest public pension fund, bought $34 million, or 46 billion won, worth of shares in MicroStrategy (MSTR).
Michael Saylor's MicroStrategy is a prominent holder of Bitcoin (BTC), the world's largest cryptocurrency.
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NPS Investments and Global Comparisons
NPS of South Korea revealed that it bought 245,000 shares of MSTR during the second quarter of the year. The price of MSTR shares has risen 92% so far this year, but most of those gains occurred in the first quarter. This represents 0.04% of the U.S. equity portfolio in which NPS is directly invested.
NPS Assets and Global Comparison
It should be noted that the NPS in South Korea has assets totaling more than $777 billion, or one trillion won. As of 2023, the assets of the Government Pension Investment Fund of Japan amounted to approximately $1.5 trillion, making it the largest pension fund in the world. With just over $1.3 trillion, the Government Pension Fund of Norway comes in second.
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MicroStrategy's Bitcoin Holdings
According to recent data, MicroStrategy is the publicly traded company that owns the most Bitcoin. The company has about 13 times as much as Marathon Digital, the largest Bitcoin miner in the world. The company has over 226,500 BTC, which is worth about $13.19 billion.
Other investments of NPS
South Korea’s NPS has already shown interest in investing in publicly traded cryptocurrency stocks in the US. In the third quarter of 2023, NPS initiated its direct participation in the cryptocurrency industry by acquiring 282,673 shares of Coinbase (COIN).
At that time, the price of a share of COIN was $78. By the end of the second quarter, the price had risen dramatically to $222.
Also read: MicroStrategy Buys Another 11,931 Bitcoin Worth $786 Million
Additionally, the company invested $61.5 million in Jack Dorsey's Block, followed by a $31.5 million investment in Roblox.