The Michigan State Retirement System has made headlines by announcing its significant investment in Grayscale’s Ethereum ETF.
The move makes Michigan the first state pension fund to own a stake in an Ethereum-based financial instrument since it began trading in July.
The Michigan pension fund disclosed in its third-quarter 13F filing that it owns 460,000 shares of the Grayscale Ethereum Trust, valued at approximately $10 million. That position puts the fund among the top five holders of Grayscale’s Ethereum ETF, according to Matthew Sigel of VanEck. The fund also disclosed that it owns 460,000 shares of the Grayscale Ethereum Mini Trust ETF (ETH), valued at approximately $1.1 million.
In May, it was reported that the Wisconsin State Investment Board had close to $100 million in BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF. Similarly, Florida’s chief financial officer recently revealed that the state has nearly $800 million in crypto-related investments, which could potentially grow depending on the outcome of the upcoming presidential election.
Michigan’s latest investment comes after it previously disclosed that it had around $7 million worth of spot Bitcoin ETF holdings, reflecting a growing openness to diversifying its portfolio with digital assets.
The move has drawn criticism from market experts. Bloomberg Senior ETF Analyst Eric Balchunas said Michigan’s preference for allocating more funds to Ethereum ETFs than Bitcoin ETFs is significant. “Michigan’s pension fund not only bought ETH ETFs, but it bought more of them, $7 million versus $10 million, despite BTC being soaring and ETH being soaring,” Balchunas wrote on social media platform X, describing the move as “a pretty big win for ETH.”
*This is not investment advice.