Norway’s sovereign wealth fund ramps up BTC exposure

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Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the largest state-owned fund in the world, increased its indirect BTC exposure by 192% over the last year, “underscoring BTC’s mainstream integration,” according to digital asset research company K33 Research.

Last week, Norway’s state-owned Norges Bank published its half-year 2025 report on the ‘Government Pension Fund Global,’ the country’s sovereign wealth fund that it manages under the name of Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM).

After analyzing the report, K33 Research found that the fund’s indirect BTC exposure has grown 87.7% in the past six months and 192.7% over the past year to 7,161 BTC (around $871.3 million, as of time of writing).

“NBIM’s indirect BTC exposure has hit new ATHs [all-time highs] of 7,161 BTC,” said Vetle Lunde, head of research at K33, in an August 12 post on X. “Increased weights in core treasury vehicles such as Strategy and MARA and the overall strong BTC accumulation from treasury comps has fueled the H1 [first half of the year] growth of 3,340 BTC.”

According to Lunde, the top five contributors to the fund’s increased BTC exposure were MicroStrategy (NASDAQ: MSTR), a United States-based software company that owns 597,325 BTC ($72.6 billion), as of July 8; MARA (NASDAQ: MARA), an American block reward mining company that reportedly holds 50,639 BTC ($6.1 billion); Block, a U.S.-based tech company founded by Jack Dorsey that is reported to hold 8,692 BTC ($1.05 billion); digital asset exchange Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN), which owns approximately 11,776 BTC ($1.4 billion); and Metaplanet (NASDAQ: MTPLF), a Japanese blockchain company reported to hold 18,113 BTC ($2.19 billion).

The latter of these companies, Metaplanet, also recently released its earnings report for the second quarter of 2025, showing a surge of almost 190% year-to-date. This out-performed the 7.2% average gain posted by the Tokyo Stock Price Index (TOPIX) Core 30, which tracks tech giants such Toyota (NASDAQ: TM), Sony (NASDAQ: SONY), and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (NASDAQ: MHVYF).

The impressive performance of blockchain and digital asset-focused companies, and the increasing investment in those companies from the likes of NBIM, can be linked to the recent peaks in the price of BTC, which in turn was in large part inspired by the pro-crypto policies of U.S. President Donald Trump.

Norway’s fund leads the way as BTC booms

The former currently sits at over $1.9 trillion in assets, as of June 2025, and is mandated to only invest in assets outside of Norway, while the latter is a smaller fund managed separately and limited to domestic and Nordic investments.

Norway’s sovereign wealth fund reached this impressive size, thanks to the country’s 1969 discovery of significant oil and gas reserves in the North Sea, which has made it Western Europe’s largest producer of those fossil fuels. To ensure the whole country benefited from this natural windfall, the government imposed heavy taxes on the energy sector in the 1990s. Using some of these tax profits, along with licensing fees and profits from the state energy company, the Norwegian Parliament created the Petroleum Fund, now recognized as the sovereign wealth fund, or NBIM.

Initially limited to investing in bonds, its mandate expanded over time to become the largest of its kind by acquiring small equity stakes in thousands of companies worldwide. Today, it is the world’s biggest single owner of listed shares.

Among the extensive list of foreign assets in the fund’s investment portfolio are several companies active in the blockchain and digital asset spaces, which is what gives NBIM its indirect exposure to 7,161 BTC.

According to K33’s Lunde, the latest report from the fund’s manager “shows that BTC is finding its way into any well-diversified portfolio, deliberate or not.”

More generally, Lunde also highlighted BTC’s strong U.S. dollar-denominated gains so far this year, growing 11.9% above its January 20 peak of $109,000—inspired by the inauguration of President Trump—to reach a new all-time high of more than $123,000 in July.

She suggested that this new peak was again down to Trump, thanks to his executive order opening $9 trillion in 401(k) retirement plans to digital assets. The order was signed in August but rumored earlier in July, coinciding with when BTC reached its new heights.

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