{"id":422129,"date":"2026-02-12T17:37:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T17:37:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/422129\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T17:37:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T17:37:15","slug":"nc-pension-plans-crypto-bet-is-down-30-million-why-supporters-remain-confident-wral-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/422129\/","title":{"rendered":"NC pension plan\u2019s crypto bet is down $30 million. Why supporters remain confident :: WRAL.com"},"content":{"rendered":"

The North Carolina Retirement Systems began investing pension fund money in cryptocurrency in late 2025, after legislative leaders pushed through a law enabling such market bets over the objection of state employees<\/a> whose paychecks fund the plan.<\/p>\n

Several months later, the state has seen more than half the value of its cryptocurrency investments wiped out, down $33 million since Sept. 30. And separate investments in crypto-related companies have lost tens of millions more.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The paper loss represents a very small blip \u2014 less than 1% \u2014 in a fund worth more than $140 billion. And the state is still holding onto its crypto investments, so it hasn\u2019t lost money yet. But some state employee advocates say the loss underscores why the plan shouldn\u2019t invest in such assets. The state treasurer, who oversees the plan, says it\u2019s too early to tell.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The state\u2019s investment in a crypto fund called Strategy had a $51 million valuation as of Sept. 30, according to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The state has continued buying shares in Strategy since then, according to Fintel, an investment research company that tracks the holdings of many large funds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Over the past five years, Bitcoin has increased in value by almost 50%. But in recent months, Bitcoin has taken a dive, tumbling 75% since reaching an all-time high on Oct. 4. Bitcoin is a major part of the Strategy fund<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As of Friday, the Office of the State Treasurer confirmed, the state\u2019s Strategy holdings were worth just $18 million, down about 65% from Sept. 30. Had the state invested in the Strategy fund five years ago, its investment would be up about 40%.\u00a0<\/p>\n

State Treasurer Brad Briner \u2014 who spent years in New York managing investments for institutions and wealthy individuals before taking office \u2014 isn\u2019t overly concerned at this point. Pension fund managers are tasked with investing with a view toward how those investments perform over the course of decades, not months or years. They do that by taking bets on a mixture of cash, bonds, safe stocks and more volatile investments.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And in the $142 billion pension plan, the state\u2019s crypto investments make up only a fraction of a percent of its total holdings. North Carolina\u2019s biggest investments are in some of the country\u2019s biggest companies; the plan held more than $1 billion each in NVIDIA, Microsoft, Apple, Google and Amazon as of late 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven on tough days, our portfolio is balanced and is well above our 6.5% annual growth target since I assumed office as State Treasurer,\u201d Briner told WRAL in a written statement.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Strategy fund represents a large part of the state\u2019s exposure to cryptocurrency but isn\u2019t its only investment affected by the crypto market.<\/p>\n

North Carolina also owns shares of Coinbase, a cryptocurrency exchange. Those holdings have also lost more than half their value in recent months: Down from $32 million on Sept. 30 to an estimated $15 million.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the pension plan is invested in Robinhood Markets, an electronic trading platform that operates cryptocurrency wallets and facilitates trades of stock, cryptocurrency and more. Its stock is also down, due in part to the Bitcoin plunge. The state\u2019s Robinhood holdings are down 41% since September to about $38 million.<\/p>\n

For state-employee advocates such as Ardis Watkins, who leads the State Employees Association of North Carolina, the crypto tumble shows why her group fought against the state being allowed to invest in it in the first place.<\/p>\n

\u201cCrypto is a roller coaster, period,\u201d she said in an interview. \u201cThat’s what our experience as a nation has brought us to. There’s really high highs, and there’s incredibly low lows. It doesn’t seem like a great item or a suitable thing for something like a retirement plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u2018Diamond hands\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of the top priorities of new N.C. House Speaker Destin Hall in 2025 was to add cryptocurrency to the state pension.<\/p>\n

Crypto billionaires and companies have given massive amounts of money<\/a> to help elect Republicans, and a few Democrats, up and down the ballot in many states. Originally Hall proposed allowing the pension plan to invest as much as 10% of its wealth into crypto.<\/p>\n

After heavy pushback from groups such as SEANC, as well individual state workers, retirees and fellow GOP lawmakers, Hall and other supporters agreed to water down their proposal to 5%. Briner, a Republican first elected in 2024, hasn\u2019t hit that cap yet \u2014 opting to have the pension plan dip its toe into Bitcoin and others rather than jump in all the way.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t only Republicans in the legislature pushing for the change. The divide was more along generational lines than political lines, with older Republicans expressing doubts about the wisdom of cryptocurrency investing, but seeing themselves out-voted by younger Republicans and Democrats, some of whom have Bitcoin or similar investments themselves and are more comfortable with the concept.<\/p>\n

State Rep. Mike Schietzelt, a 39-year-old Wake County Republican who has been among the more vocal supporters of getting the state into crypto investing, said he and other lawmakers who backed it were clear-eyed about the high-risk, high-reward nature of the market. While Bitcoin doesn\u2019t look great now, he said, he\u2019s confident another swing is coming.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is part of the cryptocurrency cycles we\u2019ve seen over the last 8 to 10 years,\u201d Schietzelt said in an interview. \u201cThere are occasional significant dips, followed by significant rises. There are bear runs, then bull runs, then bear runs, then bull runs. It\u2019s so common there are memes about it. \u2026 You can see these unrealized losses and panic, or you can understand that this moves in cycles.\u201d<\/p>\n

He expressed confidence in Briner to handle the state\u2019s investments wisely.<\/p>\n

\u201cTreasurer Briner has diamond hands,\u201d Schietzelt said. \u201cHe\u2019s a sophisticated investor who understands how these markets behave.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watkins also said she trusts Briner, saying there might not be anyone in the state who knows more about investing. And while she said he deserves credit for not investing the full 5% of the pension plan that he could\u2019ve into cryptocurrency, she thinks the state needs to stay focused on more stable investments to ensure pensions will still exist in 10, 20 or 30 years for the people who are currently paying into the system.<\/p>\n

Even if Bitcoin shoots back up in a year and the state\u2019s investments look better than they currently do, Watkins said, she\u2019d still be against having people\u2019s pensions rely on it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt can soar, and then it can bottom out,\u201d she said. \u201cBut retirement plans have to pay every month. And they have to be planned, over decades, to be there for the people when they get there. So doing the chasing like you would in a casino \u2014 \u2018Oh, I hit it big. Now I lost big, but no big deal, because I hit it big\u2019 \u2014 that’s not going to work for retirement. It’s not. It would be a disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n

Briner noted that every investment has its ups and downs. The state\u2019s exposure to the stock market is much greater than it is to crypto, he said, noting that last week, on Friday alone \u2014 when Amazon stock had a small, single-digit dip \u2014 the state took a bigger loss from that one stock on that one day than it\u2019s ever lost, combined, on cryptocurrencies.<\/p>\n

But the state\u2019s not ditching its Amazon stock, and it\u2019s not ditching its crypto holdings, either.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first priority of our investment team is to keep our employee and retiree money secure and growing,\u201d Briner said. \u201cAs someone who has been investing for my entire career, I am reminded daily that investments in the stock market always have good days and bad days.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The North Carolina Retirement Systems began investing pension fund money in cryptocurrency in late 2025, after legislative leaders…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422130,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[779,84,15313,4176,155402,5107,4174,4175,155403,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-422129","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-bitcoin","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-cryptocurrency","11":"tag-finance","12":"tag-nccapitol","13":"tag-pension","14":"tag-personal-finance","15":"tag-personalfinance","16":"tag-seanc","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom","19":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}