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Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop announced on Thursday that the city’s municipal pension plan will soon invest in Bitcoin (BTC) through exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
Not my normal subject matter in a post but I’ll share anyway – the question on whether Crypto/Bitcoin is here to stay is largely over + crypto/Bitcoin won. The #JerseyCity pension fund is in process of updating paperwork to the SEC to allocate % of the fund to Bitcoin ETFs… https://t.co/5iNEqRqHGM
— Steven Fulop (@StevenFulop) July 25, 2024
The move follows a similar investment by a Wisconsin pension fund earlier this year, signaling a growing trend among public retirement systems. Mayor Fulop, who has led Jersey City since 2013 and is now running for New Jersey governor in 2025, shared the news on social media platform X (formerly Twitter). He wrote:
The question on whether crypto/Bitcoin is here to stay is largely over and crypto/Bitcoin won.
Fulop added that the Employees Retirement System of Jersey City is currently updating paperwork with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to allocate a portion of its funds to Bitcoin ETFs. The investment is expected to be finalized by the end of summer.
Details still vague
While the exact percentage of assets to be invested wasn’t specified, Fulop indicated it would be “similar” to the 2% allocation made by Wisconsin’s state pension fund earlier this year. The specific Bitcoin ETF for the investment has not been announced.
The mayor expressed his long-standing belief in cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, calling the latter “amongst the most important new technology innovations since the internet.”
This development is part of a broader trend of growing interest in Bitcoin from public pension funds. Wisconsin’s public pension plan, with approximately $156 billion in assets, invested $160 million in spot Bitcoin ETFs earlier this year. Smaller funds, like the Houston Firefighters’ Relief and Retirement Fund, have been invested in crypto for several years.
Back in late March, Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund was reportedly considering Bitcoin as a potential investment diversification tool amidst economic and technological changes. As of December 2023, GPIF managed assets totaling 225 trillion Japanese yen ($1.54 trillion), securing its position as the largest pension fund globally.
