Wealthsimple adds crypto portfolios to group-retirement plans
BNN Bloomberg
Power Corp. of Canada’s online financial-services company Wealthsimple is adding retirement portfolios that include Bitcoin and Ethereum for its group-retirement clients, another sign of the possible mainstreaming of cryptocurrencies.
Power Corp. of Canada’s online financial-services company Wealthsimple is adding retirement portfolios that include Bitcoin and Ethereum for its group-retirement clients, another sign of the possible mainstreaming of cryptocurrencies.
Employees of companies with retirement plans run by Wealthsimple Work will be able to allocate 1 per cent to 3 per cent of their holdings into exchange-traded funds made up of Bitcoin and Ethereum, Wealthsimple said Thursday. The plans will automatically rebalance to keep the crypto, stock and bond portions of their portfolios at their targeted levels.
For Wealthsimple, adding cryptocurrencies to retirement plans is a way to differentiate its offerings from those of other financial-services providers and lure more companies to sign up with Wealthsimple Work. The move also is meant to encourage younger employees -- who may be enthusiastic about crypto, but less interested in saving for retirement -- to start contributing to Wealthsimple Work plans.
“When you’re young, that’s the best time to start saving for retirement,” Tim Kalimov, head of Wealthsimple Work, said in an interview. “So getting those folks invested is really critical.”
Wealthsimple has more than 2 million users and in May raised $750 million (US$609 million) in a funding round that valued it at about US$4 billion, more than three times what it was worth just seven months earlier. Wealthsimple Work manages group retirement plans for hundreds of companies, according to the company’s website.
The move also may provide another data point for investors seeking to gauge the potential for cryptocurrencies catching on among a wider audience. Optimism for broader crypto acceptance already was bolstered this week by Bitcoin’s rally to a record and the listing of the first exchange-traded fund linked to the digital currency.
