Swedish pension funds invest in cryptocurrency: media

STOCKHOLM, Dec. 3 (Xinhua) -- Swedish public pension funds have invested hundreds of millions of kronor in a cryptocurrency company that has lost 87 percent of its share value, Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter (DN) reported on Saturday.

Four public pension funds, which manage the pension money on behalf of the Swedish public, have invested more than 200 million Swedish kronor (19 million U.S. dollars) in Coinbase, a cryptocurrency trading company, according to the report.

Details of how many shares have been bought and sold were not revealed. But DN reported a gloomy picture of their investment in the cryptocurrency economy after the funds' semi-annual reports were reviewed.

The Swedish pension funds have invested in shares of Coinbase, whose share price has fallen as the value of bitcoin plummeted. A bitcoin has lost around 70 percent of its value this year.

Economist Claes Hemberg told DN that the economy around cryptocurrencies was very uncertain and unpredictable.

"There is no stability, no activity that creates any value. It is pure speculation and guesswork. So far it hasn't gone so well," Hemberg said.

Coinbase was listed on the Nasdaq last year. (1 Swedish krona = 0.097 U.S. dollar)