AMP (ASX:AMP) has become the first super player in Australia to make a strategic investment in crypto as the asset class goes mainstream.

According to off-market reports, AMP has made a fairly small investment in the asset class as far as the global pool of crypto money goes – just $27 million.

But, enough of a sum to underscore a kind of internal risk-on attitude at the wealth company.

That risk-on approach AMP is willing to adopt has not been industry-wide. And, in the mind of this finance journalist at least, one could be excused for wondering if AMP’s crypto investment is more of a public relations exercise.

I bring up public relations stunts as an explanation (or at least a positive side-effect) given this move has probably put AMP firmly on the radar for younger Australians watching a different flavour of charts rise and fall each day.

It mightn’t hurt AMP to brand itself as ‘in touch’ with a younger crowd, especially when you consider the stock has been hurting since 2018, back when shares were $5/ea.

Of course, a lot of people are making a lot of money off crypto, too.

Other large super funds have already on Friday indicated they’re not too keen to follow in AMP’s footsteps, given only a few years ago Bitcoin ‘tried’ to go mainstream if you will and failed as prices crashed again through 2022 to 2024.

Perhaps unsurprising for Australia, a well-entrenched hesitancy to experiment with new things is palpable.

But that position is also, arguably, very rational – especially from any manager whose confidence in the world of crypto doesn’t match that confidence they boast for public equities.

And it really should be kept at the forefront of the mind AMP’s $27M investment represents less than 0.10% of its total funds under management.

I don’t think anyone would disagree it’s effectively an experiment from a company that is – and this is kind of the point if you’re managing a lot of people’s money – on the whole, quite boring.

AMP last traded at $1.59/sh.

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