Life insurance giant Massachusetts Mutual — better known as MassMutual— is the latest company to invest millions of dollars into the flagship cryptocurrency as part of its broad investment strategy.
MassMutual’s $100 Million BTC Bet
According to a report published by The Wall Street Journal on December 10, the Springfield, Massachusetts-headquartered insurance firm purchased $100 million worth of bitcoin for its general investment account. The buy was made through NYDIG, an institutional-grade digital asset company with over $2.3 billion bitcoin under management.
The insurance company is hoping that the $100 million investment will give it a “measured yet meaningful exposure to a growing economic aspect of our increasingly digital world”.
The publication, however, notes that this investment represents only a small part of MassMutual’s overall strategy. For perspective, the company’s general investment account holds around $235 billion, meaning the $100 million BTC allocation is a drop in the ocean.
MassMutual has also acquired a $5 million minority equity stake in New York Digital Investments Group (NYDIG), signifying a vote of confidence in the crypto market — despite being a small investment for the insurance behemoth. With this equity stake, MassMutual is also directly supporting the infrastructure that stimulates adoption by major institutional players.
Don’t Be Fooled By Bitcoin’s Recent Volatility: It’s Still An Ideal Safe Haven
The bitcoin price recently corrected by $2,000 after nearing the coveted $20,000 level. Specifically, BTC plunged from $19,450 highs to below $18,000, before climbing back to $18,322.22 at press time.
Prior to the pullback, the cryptocurrency saw a dramatic rally in the span of months amid the pandemic and central banks’ breakneck monetary expansion. As a result, some investors might be questioning the cryptocurrency’s status as a safe haven given its wild price swings.
But key institutional players are not worried about the volatility. MassMutual joins other publicly listed companies that already own bitcoin. Since the start of the pandemic, multi-billion-dollar companies like MicroStrategy, Square, and Stone Ridge have adopted bitcoin as their primary treasury reserve asset.
Suffice to say, MassMutual’s embrace of the flagship cryptocurrency adds credence to the theory that Wall Street is increasingly viewing bitcoin as a viable investment and store of value, not just a speculative asset.
