Pension fund Hostplus weighs crypto access as Australia readies rules

Hostplus, a $105 billion Australian superannuation fund, is assessing how to let members access Bitcoin and other digital assets through its Choiceplus option as early as next fiscal year, subject to approvals. The review comes as a Senate panel backed a bill to bring crypto trading platforms and custody providers under national financial-services rules.

Chief Investment Officer Sam Sicilia outlined that the fund is building a product for Choiceplus, a self-directed window that lets members manage part of their retirement savings. Choiceplus currently accounts for about 1% of Hostplus assets. The fund serves nearly two million members, with an average age in the mid-to-late 30s.

Sicilia indicated the work spans assets beyond Bitcoin, including tokenized exposure to areas such as music rights. There is demand from members asking for cryptocurrency access, he noted. A launch could occur as early as the next fiscal year if product design and consumer protections are finalized.

In Parliament, the Senate Economics Legislation Committee endorsed a framework to regulate digital-asset service providers, proposing to place trading and custody within Australia’s existing financial-services regime. Lawmakers described the framework as a way to modernize oversight and set clearer standards for investor protections.

Separately, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, in its latest Key Issues Outlook, flagged regulatory gaps around crypto firms as a key risk. The regulator cited concerns about unlicensed advice and misleading conduct from fast-growing crypto, payments, and AI businesses operating at the edge of current rules.

Price swings remain a hurdle for retirement funds. AMP Super, one of the few Australian funds to test crypto, cut its Bitcoin futures exposure to around 0.02% after a sharp downturn erased roughly $700 billion from the market earlier this year. “We’ve had essentially no exposure during most of the recent sell-off,” AMP Super head of portfolio design Stuart Eliot reported. The position was first added in May 2024 as part of a dynamic allocation strategy.

Hostplus has not set final parameters for any digital-asset offering and is still reviewing consumer protections and product design. The fund’s current assessment marks a change from its stance about a decade ago, when it was more skeptical about crypto’s role in retirement portfolios.