Bitcoin May be Included in Investment Portfolio of Large Pension Fund of Japan

Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) is estimated to have assets under management of approximately $1.4 trillion. According to Spain’s investment research firm RankiaPro, for the last two years GPIF It is the world’s largest pension fund. GPIF is starting a research program to study other possible sources of investment. These may include gold and bitcoin. GPIF’s current investments are in assets such as Japanese and international stock markets and bonds. The reason for its interest in Bitcoin may be the popularity of this most valuable cryptocurrency. The Japanese government also seems to be in favor of the crypto segment. Earlier this year, Mercari, one of Japan’s largest e-commerce companies, had said that it was planning to take payments in Bitcoin soon.

The crypto market has grown rapidly in Japan in the last year. More than 5 million Japanese citizens were estimated to own cryptocurrencies at the end of last year. The attitude of the central government towards cryptocurrencies in India remains strict. Rules are being made for this sector in the country. Recently, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said that cryptocurrencies are not considered or seen as ‘currency’ in the country.

On the question of change in the attitude of the government towards this sector after the boom in the crypto market, Sitharaman said, “The government has always believed that the assets created on crypto should be used as assets for trading and many other things. “They can be used as currencies. We have not regulated them. This is the position of the central government.” Recently, there was a lot of growth in the crypto market after the Bitcoin Spot ETF got approval from the securities regulator in America.