Korea pension boosts Bitcoin proxy stake

South Korea’s National Pension Service expanded its stake in Strategy Inc by 20% in Q4 2025, adding 102,769 shares to hold 614,409 shares valued at about $93.4 million at year-end.

The increase came as Bitcoin fell from a cycle high near $126,000 to roughly $88,000 during the quarter and has since declined further to around $67,000, deepening paper losses across crypto-linked equities.

Strategy, which holds 717,722 BTC at an average cost of $75,950 per coin, has seen its stock drop 75% from its November 2024 high of $457 and is now the most-shorted US large-cap stock according to Goldman Sachs.

Across four crypto-related stocks in its portfolio, including Robinhood and Coinbase, NPS’s holdings fell from a peak of about $608 million at the end of Q3 2025 to an estimated $338 million currently, a decline of roughly 44%.

Despite the exposure, NPS has said it does not consider virtual assets a direct investment target, explaining that holdings in companies like Strategy and Coinbase stem from tracking the MSCI benchmark for its overseas equity allocation.

The crypto-stock portfolio represents about 0.25% of NPS’s $135 billion US equity book, a small allocation relative to the fund’s more than $1 trillion in total assets.

However, both major Korean political parties pledged during the 2025 presidential election to allow direct crypto investment by NPS, signalling a potential policy shift as regulators gradually open institutional access.

With its next 13F filing due by mid-May, investors will watch whether passive index tracking leads to further accumulation of crypto-linked stocks at depressed levels or whether rebalancing trims exposure.

At the time of reporting, Bitcoin price was $67,786.01.