Ontario Teachers Fund Steers Clear of Crypto After $95 Million FTX Loss (ft.com) 32
Canada's $190bn Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan says it is steering clear of the cryptocurrency sector after writing off a $95mn investment in FTX, the failed digital currency exchange. From a report: OTPP was among a number of big-name money managers to back FTX, with investments in 2021 and early 2022. The move was widely seen as a sign that high-profile, blue-chip investors were giving their stamp of approval to the fast-growing but lightly regulated crypto sector. But in November 2022 OTPP wrote off its entire stake, following FTX's dramatic collapse. The exchange's high-profile founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, is now facing fraud charges. "We're still working through what exactly happened there and you're going to be careful," OTPP chief executive Jo Taylor told the Financial Times. "It'd be unwise for us to rush" into another crypto investment based in part on "feedback from our members," he added.
they need to get out of toll roads as well you kno (Score:1)
they need to get out of toll roads as well you know that ones they have stake in still don't have FULL SPEED ORT while other toll roads near them do.
Talk about owning yourself (Score:3)
The fact you ended up owning yourself while desperately trying to own someone else is equally remarkable.
Re: they need to get out of toll roads as well you (Score:3)
Unless you are a very active trader, there is no reason to hold a single Satoshi on any exchange. The teachers fund was stupid. All retirement funds should be concerned with long term growth, not active trading. I'd sue the technical person who set this up. Not because crypto is a bad investment, but because they implemented it poorly.
It's one thing to defraud a (Score:3)
It's another matter entirely to screw over a pension fund. Those outfits have extremely deep pockets and they take a multi-decade view of the world. If they think that SBF took them to the cleaners, they will latch on to him like a pitbull and shake him back for forth until he's a limp rag.
I gotta admire the balls on that guy. Wow. He probably needs a wheelbarrow to carry them around. But he's tangled with some of the biggest players in the financial world.
SBF is FKD.
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Re:It's one thing to defraud a (Score:5, Insightful)
Gold traded at $286 in November of 1970, $2,541 in February of 1980.
Cherry picking numbers is FUN!
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Apple IPOed at $22 in 1980 and now trades at $165 after splitting a gazillion ways!
Wait, why was the GP talking about bitcoin anyway?
It's a tiny amount (Score:2)
That's 0.05% of the fund lost on FTX. It must be a diverse investment, unlike a lot of crypo-fans that lost their shirts on this stuff. What's not forgivable is that us laypeople telling retirement and pension fund managers not to invest in crypto, that it's a overly risky bet. And key investors have been signaling and sometimes explicitly tell everyone to stay away from this crap. But here we are, a bunch of people lost money on something they were told wasn't going to work, I don't even feel bad.
Re:It's a tiny amount (Score:4, Insightful)
It’s absolutely insane to see educated institutional investors treating crypto like a legitimate investment. I’m also consistently amazed by investing forums speaking well beyond what I picked up in my econ classes and casual reading and yet the whole forum is onboard for losing their shirts on a new fad every 6 months.
Apes together broke.
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Randomness outperforms them.
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Why? Since the serious crypto people dropped the fantasy that it was ever going to be a currency, it's not really that that much different than any number of other financial instruments. Also, we're talking about FTX, which is a company, not crypto itself.
I think bitcoin has inherent flaws that make it unsustainable in the long term, but some of the other systems might eventually find some kind of useful function. And anyway, casinos make lots of money. The Ontario teachers own some of those too. Also the I
Re: It's a tiny amount: It's Fully Functional Alre (Score:1)
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The sad thing is I’m sure we’ll eventually find good uses for block chain but I think most of the innovation will happen after everyone finally accepts they’re not getting rich. For the sake of illustration let’s say blockchain actually maps perfectly to some long standing recycling and waste management issue. You think anyone would even notice and if the right people did, would they not roll their eyes under the assumption it’s some kind of scam?
Nope not until the very las
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Most of those things are dwarfed by the trade in cash (and are reasons governments like crypto anyway), and the rest are just things you subjectively find distasteful. There are real objections, no need to make up silly ones.
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I expected the Teamsters to be cheated out of their retirement funds (I mean, they're Teamsters, right? Not rocket scientists?)
But teachers? Tch tch tch.
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I assume they depend on an actual investment group to make these kinds of decisions. It isn't like teachers themselves are making these decisions. Still the optics look pretty bad (i.e. stupid teachers). That said they would likely have some board or something have to approve something like this, which also doesn't speak well. They certainly have egg on their faces as this was *international* news, and not something that an Ontario Pension Fund wears well.
As to the vocal crypto boys you find everywhere hyp
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For those following it from the beginning, it was a fools errand from the start, and knew not to get involved. Everyone wants to get rich quick is the temptation. As the old saying goes, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn't.
Yep made a few thousand on it in the start thinking it would one day replace paypal and visa for online transactions. Got out before the first bubble burst, not even a blip on today’s charts but I knew if it kept going like that it would never achieve its’ intended purpose. I can’t even say I missed out of holding to when it was like 60k a coin because of course my exchange collapsed so I would have seen nothing if I stayed in.
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But here we are, a bunch of people lost money on something they were told wasn't going to work, I don't even feel bad.
The people managing the fund who decided to buy this crap with teachers' money. The fund managers didn't lose anything of their own. The people who lost money were the teachers who have little control over the decisions made by the fund managers.
But hey, thanks for letting us know that you don't feel bad about fund managers fucking up people's retirement.
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My Dad lost about 4-5% of his retirement. He didn't pick crypto, he let his fund manager pick some mutual funds or other shit and it blew up in their face. Ultimately you are responsible for your own money, even if you hired a professional to manage it, because at the end of the day the only one that is going to be hurt when that professional fails is you. Maybe it's not fair that responsibility falls on those least equipped to expect it, but that's always been how things were for me.
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This isn't a pension plan passed off to some financial institution. The Ontario Teachers Pension Plan is an investment firm, and it is controlled jointly by the teachers' union and the provincial government. The teachers have control via their union, which appoints the board members (along with the government).
Also, this is money they found in the couch cushions that they use to investigate risky emerging markets.
Ontario Teachers Fund Steers (Score:2)
I'd prefer if they'd fund Bulls.
Because reality finally hit (Score:1)
And they realized that crypto isn't the solution to *anything*, other than a) gambling (large-scale pump and dump), and b) money laundering, ransom, etc.
What the heck?! (Score:2)
The funding manager for this particular retirement plan needs to be retired and replaced, ASAP. They have no business managing a single person's money.
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I'll do you one better. Years ago, my state's retirement system for state employees had a return of ~5% at a time when the S&P 500 was up something around 12% during the same period.
They still got paid their millions for their dismal performance. The only good thing about that fiasco was the amount of money the state paid to have their money managed was significantly reduced and changes made to investments.
Not sure what's going on now, but I'd be willing to take a bet things aren't that much better.
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Would you be saying the same thing if this particular investment paid off? Only Bernie Madoff wins them all, which is why you diversify. I'm not saying that crypto is a good investment or even has value at all, but some have made money in crypto.
This is an old, old scam (Score:2)
The OTF rep should've seen this coming and blocked it. At least they're doing it now...