The State of Michigan Retirement System disclosed more than $11 million in exposure to spot ethereum (eth) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in its latest 13-F filing.
As a result, Michigan became the first state to invest in ethereum and currently has a larger position in ethereum ETFs, compared to the $7 million invested in spot bitcoin ETFs earlier this year.
As of September 30, the state pension fund of Michigan owned 460,000 shares of the Grayscale ethereum Fund (ETHE), equivalent to $10 million. He also owned 460,000 shares of the asset manager's ethereum Mini Trust, which amounted to $1.1 million.
Matthew Sigel, Head of Digital Asset Research at VanEck x.com/matthew_sigel/status/1853463874772643926″>highlighted This makes the state pension the fourth and second largest holder of shares in these funds, respectively.
A 'big win' for ethereum
Form 13-F revealed that the Michigan pension fund still stands its shares of ARK 21Shares bitcoin ETF (ARKB) reported in its latest 13-F form. As the price of bitcoin (btc) rose, holdings represented almost $7 million as of September 30.
Notably, with the addition of ethereum ETFs, the state treasury had more exposure to eth than btc at the end of the third quarter.
Bloomberg senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said the state pension fund's investment was a “pretty big win” for ethereum. He noted that the fund decided to add more exposure to eth despite its lackluster annual price performance compared to btc.
Additionally, in addition to the Michigan pension fund, the Wisconsin State Investment Board reported a $164 million exposure to bitcoin through ETFs. Jersey City and Florida Politicians also publicly mentioned adding btc to their pension funds this year.
This is probably why Balchunas considered the fact that ethereum ETFs received the attention of a state pension fund to be a big win.
Tables about to change
The performance disparity between ethereum and bitcoin is also seen when comparing their ETF entries. US Traded bitcoin ETFs btc/”>registered $24.2 billion in annual inflows, while their ethereum counterparts eth/”>presented almost 480 million dollars in negative net flows.
Nate Geraci, CEO of ETF Store, x.com/NateGeraci/status/1764117615138496831″>provided in March that ethereum ETFs would be “a bigger deal” than the market expected. He explained that demand for bitcoin ETFs was also severely underestimated, so ethereum ETFs could suffer the same.
Geraci reiterated his beliefs on November 3. x.com/NateGeraci/status/1853239218308317521″>adding that it is only a “matter of time” before inflows into US-traded ethereum ETFs begin to rise.
