Insurance giant, MassMutual buys $100 million worth of Bitcoin

Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. bought about $100 million in Bitcoin for its investment purposes.

By Olumide Adesina

A household name in the world’s insurance business, Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co., has of late gone into the crypto-verse.

• Just recently, it bought about $100 million in Bitcoin for investment purposes.
• Also, in a report credited to WSJ, the insurance giant acquired a $5 million minority equity stake in NYDIG, a subsidiary of Stone Ridge, that offers crypto services to institutional investors.
• NYDIG presently has about $2.3 billion in crypto assets under management, which would also help in facilitating custody services for MassMutual’s Bitcoins.
• The investment in Bitcoin will represent 0.04% of the general investment account of nearly $235 billion as of September 30, MassMutual said.

“We see this initial investment as a first step, and like any investment, may explore future opportunities,” Spokeswoman, Chelsea Haraty, said in an email.

What this means

Although, the recent crypto investments made by the insurance giant is regarded as little when compared to its total investment holdings, such a move adds MassMutual to the list of elite financial firms buying bitcoins.

What you should know

• MassMutual has been in the business of insuring as far back as the 18th century. It is also known as the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company.
• MassMutual founded in 1851, serves over 5 million customers.
• With its headquarters in Massachusetts, the company provides financial products such as life insurance, long term care insurance, disability income insurance, retirement/401(k) plan services, and annuities.
• Bitcoin peaked in late November at $19,835, hitting its 2017 high, and currently trades slightly below $18k with a return of more than 150% YTD.
• At the time of writing this report, Bitcoin was trading at around $17,980 with a daily trading volume of $28 Billion. It has been down 2.32% in the last 24 hours. It now has a market capitalization of $334 Billion, with a circulating supply of 18,567,806 BTC coins and a maximum supply of 21,000,000 BTC coins.