Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual) has acquired a minority stake worth $5m in institutional bitcoin provider NYDIG.

MassMutual has also purchased $100m in bitcoin for its general investment account in a transaction facilitated by NYDIG.

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New York-based NYDIG has nearly $2.3bn of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies under management. It will provide custody services for MassMutual’s bitcoins.

MassMutual is said to be the latest in a list of companies who invested in bitcoin, including MicroStrategy and Square.

Comments:

Commenting on the development, MassMutual chief investment officer Tim Corbett said: “We believe that having an equity stake in NYDIG as well as a Bitcoin position in our general investment account will help us deliver long-term value to our policyowners. We look forward to further exploring additional ways to work with NYDIG, consistent with our ongoing focus on innovation and diversification.”

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NYDIG co-founder and CEO Robert Gutmann said: “We are proud of this incredible moment in the history of both Bitcoin and the insurance industry. This reflects the expansion of Bitcoin to insurance company general investment accounts, as well as NYDIG’s unique ability to meet the complex needs of the most demanding institutional investors.”

NYDIG founder and executive chairman Ross Stevens, who is also founder and CEO of NYDIG’s parent firm Stone Ridge, added: “MassMutual has been a phenomenal company to work with across Stone Ridge’s broad investment platform. Given their track record of innovation, there is nothing surprising to me about MassMutual leading their industry yet again by both seeing, and acting on, the long-term value of the Bitcoin monetary risk premium for their policyowners.”

Recent developments

In September this year, MassMutual agreed to sell its retirement plan business to Empower Retirement.

In May, the insurer expanded its life insurance programme MassMutual HealthBridge to an additional five states with the highest volume of Covid-19 cases.

In June, Nippon Life Insurance acquired a 85.1% stake in MassMutual Japan, a wholly owned life insurance and wealth management affiliate of American MassMutual International, for JPY104.2bn ($955m) in cash.