Louisiana’s Retirement System Bets $3.2M on Saylor’s Bitcoin Strategy—Pension Funds Go Crypto
Another state pension fund just placed its chips on the Bitcoin table.
The Institutional Pivot
Forget the cautious bond ladder—Louisiana's public employee retirement system just allocated a cool $3.2 million to a strategy synonymous with maximalist conviction. This isn't dipping a toe; it's a deliberate wager on digital scarcity as a legitimate store of value for long-term obligations. The move signals a quiet but significant shift in how fiduciary managers perceive asset allocation in a digitizing economy.
Strategy Over Speculation
The allocation targets a specific, high-conviction approach rather than a broad crypto ETF. It’s a focused bet on a single thesis: that Bitcoin's programmed monetary policy trumps traditional inflation hedges. This bypasses the usual committee-driven diversification playbook, opting instead for strategic concentration—a page taken from venture capital, not pension fund management 101.
The New Fiduciary Playbook
Gone are the days when crypto exposure meant career risk for pension trustees. Now, the greater risk might be missing the structural shift entirely. Allocating to this strategy isn't just about alpha; it's a hedge against monetary debasement and an acknowledgment that the future of finance is being built on open networks. Other state funds are watching—this could trigger a domino effect as fiduciary duty gets a crypto-era rewrite.
The Bottom Line
While Wall Street analysts debate basis points, a Louisiana pension fund just made a $3.2 million statement: digital assets are now part of the institutional toolkit. It’s a pragmatic move wrapped in a philosophical bet—one that quietly mocks the traditional 60/40 portfolio's diminishing returns. After all, nothing says 'future-proofing retiree benefits' like betting on the hardest money ever created... while the old guard still worries about bond duration.
US state public funds increase Bitcoin exposure as Strategy adds coin holdings
Since Strategy pivoted its business to become a DAT, several public funds touted have been picking up its shares as a proxy investment to Bitcoin. As reported by Cryptopolitan last Monday, chairman Michael Saylor disclosed that the company acquired 13,627 Bitcoins for a total cost of $1.25 billion, at an average of $91,519 per coin.
Bitcoin later climbed above $97,000 in the week before tanking from the start of the weekend. The Asian market on Monday opened with the coin trading below $93,000. Strategy’s market Net Asset Value (mNAV), which compares the firm’s fully diluted enterprise value, adjusted for debt and cash, to the value of its Bitcoin holdings, currently stands at 1.07.
An mNAV of 1.07 means investors are paying more than the spot value of the crypto held on the balance sheet. Even so, the Louisiana Employee Fund is seemingly confident in MSTR and is hoping for a reversal in Bitcoin’s price back to six figures, which could push the stock price back to its 12-month high of $450.
The Louisiana fund has joined the state of New York in investing in Strategy, which increased its MSTR position to $50 million in mid-December, when the stock was experiencing single-day declines of as much as 7%.
Does Strategy have an influence on the Bitcoin market?
Strategy’s Nasdaq-listed shares have climbed 12.37% since the start of 2026. However, over the past six months, MSTR’s price has dropped by 61%. Although the stock ROSE 4% last week and closed Friday up 1.6% to $173, it is still trading almost two-thirds below its all-time high.
As the largest corporate Bitcoin holder, the company is coined the largest corporate market “whale,” capable of influencing prices through its actions. Some members of the crypto community believe any BTC sales by Strategy could cause market instability, which could then spiral to firms with business relationships with the DAT.
Jan van Eck, founder of the investment firm bearing his name and an investor in digital assets himself, said his firm has avoided Strategy’s hunger for Bitcoin because “It’s just publicity.”
Herb Greenberg, a longtime financial analyst, said the Saylor-led business is a “quasi Ponzi scheme” that pays returns to existing investors by leveraging new capital, as it generates little operating income.
When asked by CNBC last year to address the Ponzi comparisons, Saylor defended the company’s use of leverage and equity issuance.
“Just like developers in Manhattan, every time real estate goes up in value, they issue more debt to develop more real estate. That’s why your buildings are so tall in New York City. It’s been going on for 350 years. I WOULD call it an economy,” he said.
In early 2025, Strategy launched preferred share offerings marketed under names such as “Strike,” “Strife,” and “Stretch,” which promised cash dividends between 8% to 11% over fixed periods. The structure is similar to bonds issued by traditional finance, where operating revenue supports regular interest payments.
However, in Strategy’s case, the Core business is about acquiring and holding Bitcoin, and cash dividends can be paid when Bitcoin prices are trading in the green, which MSTR’s price historically follows.
Saylor insists the company’s BTC investments are risk-free, saying in a podcast last fall that Strategy is not yet a “high-yield bank account, but would be pretty close.”
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