The American insurance giant MassMutual has announced that it’s purchased $100 million in Bitcoin for its general investment account, making it one of the first major insurers to bet on the cryptocurrency. MassMutual purchased its Bitcoins with the help of NYDIG, a startup that offers crypto custodian services for firms in which MassMutual also announced that it bought a $5 million minority stake in.

MassMutual’s $100 million bet on Bitcoin underscores how more traditional financial institutions are testing the waters on digital assets in recent times. It’s notable for MassMutual, which was founded back in the 19th century and has made its first cryptocurrency bet in its 169 years of existence.

Although the $100 million seems big, it’s minute relative to MassMutual’s entire general investment account which totals $235 billion. The investment comes in a year that Bitcoin’s price has surged over 150% thanks to renewed interest in the world’s most popular cryptocurrency.

It seems that institutional investors and established companies are gradually scouting for digital asset investments, another example being the publicly-traded business intelligence company MicroStrategy, which has spent nearly $500 million purchasing Bitcoin this year and recently commenced a $400 million bond sale with proceeds to be used entirely to purchase Bitcoin.

Another company that’s made a significant bet on Bitcoin this year is Square, the payments company, which bought $50 million worth of Bitcoin this October.

Cryptocurrency’s reputation for being volatile has long led institutional firms and investors to shy away from the area. Now, even as a few firms have picked up digital assets, most of them have placed their bets solely on Bitcoin, the world’s most-used cryptocurrency, and not the many other cryptocurrencies out there.

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