Crypto’s impressive returns led institutional investors to consider unconventional investments

Cryptocurrencies have always been volatile, but they have also generated some very impressive returns. Even large pension funds got in on the action, and some of them have been burned. By investing in the crypto exchange FTX, the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP) hoped to avoid the risk of investing in individual cryptocurrencies. But that backfired spectacularly when FTX collapsed, and OTPP recently wrote down its entire $95 million (USD) investment.

The pension plan has been criticized for missing red flags, but Desautels Prof. Sebastien Betermier can understand why large funds would consider crypto. “We need to recognize that the growth of cryptocurrencies has been tremendous over the past five to seven years,” Betermier told Bloomberg. “From the perspective of a long-term investor like a pension fund, it raises the question, should we invest a piece of our wealth in crypto?”