The Korean National Pension Service (KNPS), ranked the world’s third largest public pension fund, recently invested $19.9 million in Coinbase shares, according to SEC filings. This is its first-ever investment in the cryptocurrency sector.
South Korea acquires just under 283,000 Coinbase shares
We learn via a recent filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that the Korean National Pension Service (KNPS), the world’s third-largest public pension fund, invested $19.9 million in Coinbase shares over the third quarter of 2023.
Specifically, South Korea acquired 282,673 Coinbase shares (ticker COIN) over this period, with a gain in value of around 39% as of November 15, when the document was published. With COIN shares currently valued at $98.15, KNPS has already generated $7 million in profit from this investment.
Note that Coinbase’s share price had skyrocketed in early July, when we learned that the exchange had signed a monitoring agreement with the Nasdaq exchange concerning the giant BlackRock’s future Bitcoin cash ETF.
Coinbase share price evolution since the beginning of 2023, with the KNPS investment period highlighted
According to South Korean media outlet News1, this is the first time Korea’s National Pension Service has made an investment related to the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Moreover, News1 points out that the KNPS explicitly mentions in its investment policy that it does not intend to buy cryptocurrencies directly, but leaves open the possibility of investing in crypto exchanges.
As far as Coinbase shares are concerned, these are doing well: TradingView data tells us that the COIN share price has risen by around 168.98% since January 1, 2023, with a 62% increase over the last 6 months. However, it is currently trading well off its high (ATH) of $319.42 reached in October 2021.
In its latest quarterly results, Coinbase reported net revenue growth of 7.5% year-on-year in the third quarter of this year, with “only” $2 million in operating losses, compared with $545 million in 2022 over the same period.
