A couple of Virginia public pension funds that first dipped their toes into the world of digital assets by investing in venture capital two years ago are at it again, and this time they are making a more direct bet on cryptocurrencies.

The Fairfax County Police Officers Retirement System and Fairfax County Employees' Retirement System are planning to invest, pending board approvals, a total of $50 million in Parataxis Capital Management LLC's main fund, which buys various digital tokens and cryptocurrency derivatives.

The outlays come on the heels of the Fairfax funds—which together manage about $7.15 billion—investing several times in Morgan Creek Asset Management funds and, earlier this year, in crypto venture firm Blockchain Capital. While some of these investments ended up going into coins like bitcoin, the majority was invested into technology startups, so Fairfax considered them venture-capital investments. Parataxis, with its focus on actual coins, is different.