Norway's Indirect Bitcoin Investments Reach All-Time High
Date: 2025-08-14 Author: Oliver Abernathy Categories: IN WORLD
Norway's sovereign wealth fund has recorded a record indirect exposure to Bitcoin. According to analytics company K33, as of June 30, 2025, the fund held the equivalent of 7,161 BTC. This is 87.7% more than six months ago and almost three times more than a year ago.
K33's analysis is based on an assessment of Norges Bank Investment Management's (NBIM) stakes in public companies that have Bitcoin on their balance sheets. The largest contribution was made by Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), which has been actively increasing its reserves of the first cryptocurrency. In six months, the fund's Bitcoin share through Strategy has grown by 3,340 BTC.
By the end of June, NBIM owned 1.05% of Strategy shares worth $1.18 billion, up $514 million from the end of 2024. The fund also holds shares in Block, Coinbase, MARA, and Metaplanet, which are also active Bitcoin holders.
K33 Head of Research Vetle Lunde noted that such exposure to cryptocurrency risks is not a deliberate policy of Norway. According to him, the fund adheres to a maximally diversified investment strategy, and the presence of Bitcoin in the portfolio is the result of investments in companies with crypto assets.
According to K33 calculations, the indirect Bitcoin exposure through NBIM is equivalent to about $138 per person in the country. Lunde also emphasized that the trend towards increasing such exposure is reinforced by the growth of corporate treasuries focused on Bitcoin. In his estimation, this has become a common practice for index investors, and as the practice of placing Bitcoin on the balance sheets of large companies continues to spread, such investments will grow.
Norway’s global government pension fund, managed by NBIM under the supervision of the Ministry of Finance, is considered the largest in the world. Its assets are estimated at about $1.5 trillion and are distributed between stocks, bonds and real estate.
Thus, the growth of indirect Bitcoin in Norway’s investments does not reflect a change in strategy, but a global trend in which large institutional investors inevitably gain crypto exposure through participation in the capital of companies with digital assets.
