Trump's crypto mania poses a risk for our super

The Age

a day ago

This distinct lack of guardrails, and the well-known volatility of crypto – data shows that over the past decade the cryptocurrency market has been almost five times as volatile as the US sharemarket – is one thing when it's young investors who are eager to take high risk for possible high reward. But it's another when people's retirements are involved.
One of the most likely reasons for this loosening of regulations (gold and private investments are also set to be added to what US funds can invest in) is that the industry is under increasing pressure globally to find new investment options and maximise returns because of our ageing population. The pension system in the UK, for example, is expected to reach a crisis point within the next two decades, with many people predicted to retire with less than they may have expected.
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You can see, then, why cryptocurrency suddenly looks promising. But here is where another likely reason for this shift also arises and, depending on your politics, is either a problem so glaring it might as well be an entire herd of elephants in the room, or is simply shrewd business ingenuity.
The US government is currently led by a man who, along with his family, has a bitcoin mining farm and reserve. They have launched their own crypto coins, stablecoin and crypto trading app. It's estimated that $US2.9 billion ($4.5 billion) of the Trump family's wealth – roughly 40 per cent – is tied to their digital investments. And on Wednesday, the White House launched a 160-page document outlining how the government will bring to life the president's promise to bolster digital assets. Trump isn't just pro-crypto, he's driving the pro-crypto bus.
Again, investing and being hungry for risk is one thing. But when the money being invested is retirement funds, it's a different ball game. Considering cryptocurrencies are still such a new asset class, there's no long-term performance data to assess their suitability for super investments. But already, there is a cautionary tale to look to.
In 2022, a Canadian pension plan for teachers that invested in crypto lost $147 million in invested funds following the collapse of digital currency exchange FTX. While retirement funds are worth billions and $147 million might not sound like all that much in the grand scheme of things, try telling that to the hardworking teacher who was a year away from retirement and suddenly faced working longer due to bad investments.
Currently in Australia, the only way to invest in crypto using superannuation is through a self-managed fund. But two things are worth noting here. The first is that there are more than 600,000 self-managed funds, and that with more than $750 billion in assets, they represent roughly a third of our national super sector.
The second is that in February, soon after Trump's return to the White House, Australia's industry leaders and Treasurer Jim Chalmers travelled to the US for a 'super summit', in an attempt to try to win over American financial executives and the US government.
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Currently, about $US400 billion of our super is invested in US assets, which translates to roughly 14 per cent of all Australian investments. However, that's expected to grow to more than $US1 trillion over the next decade.
Whether these assets will one day include crypto remains to be seen. But the fact that American funds – which have the biggest pool of money in the world – now can more freely look to crypto than ever before, and that Australia is so hungry to remain economically close to the US, is something that should make us sit up and pay attention.
Victoria Devine is an award-winning retired financial adviser, bestselling author and host of Australia's No.1 finance podcast, She's on the Money. She is also founder and director of Zella Money.