Airdrop Army

In a pure signal shift, Michigan’s massive $13.6 billion state pension fund has decided to swim upstream. They threw down $10 million into Grayscale’s Ethereum Trust (ETHE), per a fresh SEC filing. And that’s not even the kicker. This makes Michigan’s Retirement System the very first U.S. state pension to swing so heavy on Ethereum, pushing the ETH stack above its Bitcoin holdings. It’s the kind of twist that’s gonna ripple across the TradFi-crypto divide for a while.

Ethereum Over Bitcoin? Michigan Chooses a Side

What’s wild here is Michigan’s crew didn’t even blink at Bitcoin’s early blessing from the SEC. Bitcoin ETFs were a go months ago, yet the pension fund leaned on ETH anyway. Monday’s disclosure dropped details of their initial $10 million ETHE buy-up, plus an extra $1.1 million plowed into Grayscale’s Ethereum Mini Trust. In just two swoops, Michigan’s retirement system now rides the Ethereum rails with heavier exposure than Bitcoin.

This move speaks volumes. By pivoting toward Ethereum, Michigan’s throwing down a bet on Ethereum’s staying power, signaling that the old-school finance game might be less BTC-centric than expected. Folks watching closely are whispering that this is ETH nudging itself into blue-chip territory, at least in the eyes of these institutional whales.

ETHE and the Fee War Frenzy

Now, Grayscale’s ETHE isn’t exactly the budget pick. Each share’s pegged to Grayscale’s Ethereum reserves, so Michigan’s got price exposure without the private key circus. But ETHE’s rollout in July was…rocky. The ETF conversion kicked off with record outflows, bleeding $484 million on day one and $2 billion by August, if SoSoValue’s trackers are spot-on.

Meanwhile, the ETF fee turf war’s heating up fast, with behemoths like BlackRock, Fidelity, and Bitwise all dropping U.S.-based Ethereum ETFs this year. Grayscale’s ETHE slaps a 2.5% fee on investors, while BlackRock’s ETHA and Fidelity’s FETH are about to slash fees down to 0.12% and 0.25% after the December waiver cut-off.

Despite the fee carnage, Michigan’s big-time ETH buy says they’re angling for the long game, where Ethereum’s clout could dwarf the pennies in fees. In TradFi terms, it’s rare air, signaling that Michigan’s Retirement System is hitching its wagon to Ethereum’s roadmap.