Institutional investor Catherine Morner, chief investment officer for the $ 1.9 billion Fairfax County Police Officer Retirement Program in Northern Virginia, is familiar with digital assets.
In 2018, the Police Fund became t, along with a sister pension fund, the $ 5.1 billion Fairfax County Employee Retirement Program.He first knew of a public pension fund that was committed to a dedicated fund primarily investing in blockchain technology companies. — The Morgan Creek Blockchain Opportunity Fund managed by Morgan Creek Digital Asset, a subsidiary of Morgan Creek Capital Management LLC, based in Chapel Hill, NC. In 2018, the Employees Fund contributed $ 10 million and the Police Fund contributed $ 11 million to the Morgan Creek Foundation.
Since then, the two Fairfax funds have made five additional digital asset-focused allocations, including two in recent months.
The employee fund invested $ 32 million in October, and the police fund invested $ 18 million in November in Parataxis Capital, a multi-strategy hedge fund focused on the digital assets sector. The two Fairfax funds also signed a revenue sharing agreement with Parataxis Capital, but Molnar declined to provide the details. “We were happy to invest as a limited partner, but especially when we were able to negotiate revenue sharing with them and become their strategic partner,” she said.
In January, the Employees Fund committed $ 40 million and the Police Fund committed $ 20 million to Polychain Ventures III, a venture capital fund managed by Polychain Capital focused on digital assets.
Molnar said her pension fund has been making strong returns from digital assets and is bullish on its future. “We believe that there will be tremendous growth in the field of digital assets, so over time we believe that many assets, not just assets, will be digitized,” Molnar said. Says. “That means you’ll be able to buy a variety of digital and fractional stocks, not just artwork and NFTs. Stocks, bonds, typical financial assets, but everything.”
She said the board would consider two additional digital asset funds at a meeting on May 11, but refused to provide details in advance. She said pension funds cannot share certain returns from digital asset funds.
Molnar said pension funds do not invest directly in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, so they gain exposure to the asset class while avoiding daily volatility.
