Benzinga | Dec 11, 2020 12:49AM EST

Veteran Insurer MassMutual Buys $100M Worth Bitcoin

Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual) has invested $100 million in Bitcoin and purchased a minority stake in NYDIG, a Bitcoin technology provider, which also facilitated the transaction.

What Happened: MassMutual -- which has operated since 1851 -- is also picking up a minority stake in NYDIG amounting to $5 million.

"We are proud of this incredible moment in the history of both Bitcoin and the insurance industry," NYDIG CEO Robert Gutmann said in a statement.

"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."

The New York-based NYDIG said it has over $2.3 billion of digital assets under custody.

Why It Matters: The MassMutual investment is small by the standards of the company which has a general investment account that totals almost $235 billion as of Sept. 30, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Bitcoin has attracted an increased institutional interest of late. This week, MicroStrategy Inc (NASDAQ:MSTR) said it was raising $550 million in senior notes to buy Bitcoin.

MicroStrategy upped its investment from the initially announced $400 million with the span of a week.

Other companies coming onboard the Bitcoin-train include PayPal Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) and Square Inc. (NYSE:SQ).

Price Action: Bitcoin traded 6.75% lower at $17,915.22 at press-time. GBTC closed Thursday nearly 7% higher at $21.47.

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