The investment department of the United Kingdom-based pension fund M&G announced a $20 million investment in the country’s first approved Bitcoin futures exchange, Global Futures & Options Holdings (GFO-X). This investment is part of a $30 million Series B financing round for the futures exchange. Initially, the platform will offer its users the ability to trade Bitcoin index futures and options contracts.
This move will provide a platform that allows traditional financial institutions to diversify into various crypto futures products. GFO-X aims to be a regulated trading platform for crypto asset services by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and strives to not be centrally defined.
The investment capital comes from the Series B financing round provided by M&G’s Prudential With Profits Fund, which is worth $138 billion, through a Crossover strategy. The Crossover strategy is a method aimed at providing patient growth capital to rapidly growing private companies.
The funding is intended to establish a trading and exchange center for crypto assets in the futures market and to encourage innovation in the sector. As part of the investment, M&G will join the GFO-X management board.
In a statement, M&G portfolio manager Jeremy Punnett highlighted the potential for the United Kingdom and London to become a leading location for cryptocurrency technology and investment. GFO-X CEO Arnab Sen noted that evolving legal regulations in the UK and Europe will assist the entry of crypto assets into mainstream financial offerings. However, this potential is contingent on the integration of traditional market structures to mitigate the perceived risks associated with the emerging asset class.