The Retail Employees Superannuation Trust (REST), one of Australia's largest superannuation funds, has voiced support for the growing market saying cryptocurrencies are a good investment as inflation rises. Rest, which provides super and trust services primarily to the retail and hospitality sectors, suggested the funds investment into crypto may not be too far off.
As mentioned in an article by the Australian Financial Review, chief investment officer Andrew Lill hinted at crypto investment in response to a question from a member at Rest's annual meeting:
I do think that, in an era of inflation, it could be a potentially good place to invest
Lill then qualified his statement with a cautious mindset:
It's still a very volatile investment, so any allocation exposure we make to cryptocurrencies is likely to be part of our diversified portfolio as initially a fairly small allocation that may, over time, build
Although it seems REST is only dipping their toes in the crypto ocean, there are positive signs resulting from major Australian institutions entering into the market and recognising its potential, including Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) and Mastercard in recognising cryptocurrencies with CBA to offer crypto buying and selling to customers and Mastercard launching crypto-linked credit cards.
Despite REST's intention to monitor the crypto market, there doesn't appear to be a roadmap for the fund to start investing members money just yet. A spokesperson that was asked about Mr Lill's comments reaffirmed the funds interest, but insisted it was something for the future:
While we are certainly considering cryptocurrencies as a way to diversify our members' retirement savings, we will not be investing in the immediate future